Downing Street illustrates PM’s tribute to Salisbury with picture of Bath

Downing Street has blamed "human error" for a social media post about Theresa May's visit to Salisbury being illustrated by a picture of Bath.

A message on the Prime Minister's official Twitter feed paid tribute to the "beautiful, welcoming" Wiltshire city on the anniversary of the poison attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal on its streets.

But rather than a picture of the famous 123-metre spire of Salisbury Cathedral, the message was accompanied by a shot of St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church 40 miles away in Bath.

"I hope that moving forward Salisbury will once again be known for being a beautiful, welcoming English city and not for the events of 4 March 2018," said the PM in her message.

The picture was hastily removed and replaced with a picture of the door of 10 Downing Street, but not before it was noticed by eagle-eyed Times journalist Matt Chorley, a native of Somerset and former reporter on the Western Morning News.

"That's the trouble with these Westcountry cathedral cities, they all look the same," joked Mr Chorley.

Bath's Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse said: "Whilst it's always lovely to see a beautiful shot of Bath, I think No 10 may have got carried away with this time... plenty of nice shots of Salisbury to use!"

Mrs May's official spokesman said: "This was human error. It was corrected as soon as anyone was made aware of it.

"The Prime Minister is in Salisbury today and will be expressing her great admiration for the resilience which the community has shown in response to the attack a year ago."