Grant Shapps has removed TikTok from his phone due to security concerns over the Chinese-owned social media app.
Official sources confirmed the newly appointed Defence Secretary has passed responsibility for running his TikTok account to constituency staff, who will use their devices.
The move is in line with a Government ban on ministers and civil servants downloading TikTok on to personal phones or laptops.
It was imposed because the Beijing-controlled platform harvests personal data, including biographical information, social connections, locations and other sensitive information.
The ruling followed a Cabinet Office security review of the threat posed by TikTok. Parliament has also banned the app from its wi-fi networks.
Despite the warnings, Mr Shapps has remained an unabashed fan of the app, but sources insisted that he will not enter any Ministry of Defence building with a phone which has the app on it.
It comes after Mr Shapps replaced Ben Wallace as Defence Secretary to the surprise of many at Westminster because of his lack of previous experience in the area.
Mr Shapps has served in a wide variety of posts throughout his political career – including five Cabinet posts in the past year – but never a defence brief. He did visit Ukraine recently, ostensibly to discuss energy issues.
The MP said he was ‘honoured’ to be appointed and would continue the ‘fight against Putin’s barbaric invasion’.
However, a former army chief warned that Mr Shapps knows ‘very little about defence’ and it will take him ‘quite some time to get up to speed’.
Tories suggested Mr Shapps, known for his slightly off-the-wall videos promoting policies, would be getting the ‘mother of all briefings’ from defence officials and would be forced to delete some apps from his phone.
It has now emerged that he has in fact deleted TikTok from his phone.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan has also criticised the appointment of Mr Shapps as Defence Secretary.
Mr Shapps clashed with union leaders while in the transport brief and Mr Whelan, standing at a picket line in Euston, north London, joked of the appointment yesterday: ‘I keep looking at the skies waiting for the missiles to rain down.’
