DEFENCE Secretary Grant Shapps has vowed to continue to post to TikTok despite criticism that it could pose a security risk.

Asked if he would give up posting to the controversial social media network, he told GB News: “No, I don’t have it on my phone and, by the way, the Ministry of Defence uses TikTok as does the Army.

“You can’t help but be where people are actually viewing things, but I don’t personally have it on my phone.

“I’ve been in a number of different Government positions. I’m an experienced Cabinet minister. I’ve run complex, difficult departments with large infrastructure budgets, and we live in a country where civilians run the country rather than the military.

“For example, I noticed that only two of the last 15 defence secretaries had military background at all. So it’s perfectly normal not to have a military background.”

In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he continued: “Just to be clear, there’s no security risk viewing TikTok. I don’t think anyone is saying that – the security risk will come through the app itself and I don’t have the app on my phone. I don’t personally post to it.

“We have to make a decision in the wider world…I don’t think it’s the best way to communicate, not being on the platforms that people use.

“They have to be used safely. Presumably the MoD before my time here came to the conclusion that it was able to do that and I follow the security lead of the Ministry of Defence.”

On Vladimir Putin’s meeting with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, he said: “I think it says a lot about Putin and his war that he is now having to turn to the North Koreans as literally his last friends in the world and to tap into their 1960s arsenal of weapons.

“Putin cannot, will not win this war in Ukraine. We will stand by Ukraine. Our support will not waver in any way, shape or form.”

Asked about Labour claiming that the Conservatives cancelled its school re-building programme, he said: “I’ve heard Labour going on about this…Building Schools for the Future, which is the specific programme in mind, was about secondary schools.

“There are 22,000 schools and colleges in this country, the vast majority are not secondary schools.”