Liam Fox has denied sending a controversial tweet — while sitting in front of a giant picture of it.

The Secretary of State for International Trade was in an interview with Sophy Ridge when he claimed not to have sent a tweet from his account.

The tweet, which was sent in March 2016, read: “The United Kingdom, is one of the few countries in the European Union that does not need to bury its 20th century history.”

Many retweeted it last week after reports that officials were calling their plans to secure trade deals in Africa as “Empire 2.0”.

Mr Fox claimed the tweet had not been sent out by him, but that it was an "out-of-context" snippet of one of his speeches sent out by the Guardian.

However, as he made these claims, the tweet from his account was displayed on a large screen behind him.

Many on social media picked up on this gaffe: