D-Day blunder has Rishi Sunak below siege
War veterans, military chiefs and critics from across the political spectrum queued up yesterday to condemn Rishi Sunak for skipping a major D-Day ceremony.
The Prime Minister apologised for his ‘mistake’ – but was accused of letting the country down, with some even branding his actions as ‘stupid’.
On a calamitous day, Tory sources questioned whether it was possible to change leaders during a General Election campaign and candidates lined up to criticise Mr Sunak.
It has emerged that after attending British/French commemorations on Thursday alongside the King and president Emmanuel Macron, Mr Sunak left Normandy for an interview with ITV, due to be broadcast next week.
It meant that he missed the international ceremony, which was attended by 25 world leaders and heads of state, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings.
Rishi Sunak, pictured with his wife Akshata Murty, apologised for leaving D-Day events early to take part in a TV interview
The PM has faced fury after it emerged he travelled back from Normandy in order to continue his general election campaign with an interview in front of ITV cameras
Veterans and world leaders gathered in France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day
World leaders, including US President Joe Biden, gathered to mark the sacrifice made by troops arriving on the Normandy beaches in 1944.
But the UK was represented by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron – while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also rubbed shoulders with international politicians.
Yesterday, Mr Sunak issued an apology over social media and repeated it in an awkward exchange with broadcasters during an election campaign event in Wiltshire.
He suggested it had always been his intention to leave before the international ceremony on Omaha Beach, even before he called the General Election.
‘I’m someone who will always admit when I’ve made a mistake,’ Mr Sunak said.
‘I stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me as Prime Minister weeks ago – before the election.’
Mr Sunak said that having participated in ‘all the British events with British veterans, I returned home before the international leaders’ event later in the day.
‘On reflection, that was a mistake. And I apologise. I think it’s important, though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, the focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much.’
Mr Sunak is pictured here next to the King and Queen as well as French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer stayed for the international ceremony, during which he met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky
In a social media post this morning, Mr Sunak admitted ‘it was a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I apologise’
At a seven-party debate hosted by the BBC, Common leader Penny Mordant admitted that the Prime Minister had made a mistake in leaving early
Even the PM’s own veterans minister Johnny Mercer admitted Mr Sunak had made a ‘significant mistake’ by leaving D-Day memorial events early to carry out a TV interview
When challenged on what it said about him that his election rival stayed in France while he did not, Mr Sunak said it was not ‘right to be political’.
He also said that rumours that he had considered missing the Normandy elements of the D-Day anniversary commemorations entirely were ‘simply not right’.
ITV said the timing of the interview had been suggested by the Conservative Party.
But following Mr Sunak’s actions, a Tory source said: ‘Is it possible to change leaders mid-campaign? It’s becoming a cliche but it does feel existential for the party.’ Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, said the incident was Mr Sunak’s ‘Gillian Duffy moment’ – a reference to Gordon Brown’s infamous microphone moment where he called Ms Duffy a ‘bigoted woman’.
Mr Farage told ITV: ‘It was a catastrophe for Gordon Brown and I think the one thing people have always associated the Conservative Party with is being basically patriotic. It is led by a man who very clearly isn’t.’
A former Conservative cabinet minister added: ‘It was completely stupid and quite unnecessary. I don’t think [Mr Sunak] has a strong political gut… and he has a record of being stubborn.’
Normandy veteran Ken Hay, 98, who was captured as a prisoner of war just weeks after D-Day, said Mr Sunak had let the country down.
‘It’s not the representation of how we’re trying to weld things together to keep the peace,’ he said. Mr Hay added that Mr Sunak had decided to ‘bail out, let them get on with it because ‘I want to stand in the election, I want my seat back’.
The Prime Minister also faced fury from senior military figures, including Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy, who said: ‘I would have thought he’d have been desperate to be involved in such a major, major event of such significance to so many millions of people across the United Kingdom, let alone around the world.
The PM visited a school on a road called Veterans Way for another election campaign visit and the irony was not lost on people
A squirming Rishi Sunak issued a grovelling apology in front of TV cameras for leaving D-Day commemoration events early
‘I find it very strange that he should do such an own goal.’
Lord West said that Mr Sunak’s advisers ‘should have told him to stay’, adding: ‘It makes you wonder, ‘Well, if they can’t run an election campaign, how the hell can they run the country?’
Sir Craig Oliver, who was Lord Cameron’s No 10 communications chief, told BBC Radio 4 Today’s programme that Mr Sunak stood accused of ‘not getting what it is to be Prime Minister’.
Of the D-Day events, he said: ‘I think if you’re planning these things, you’ve got to say, ‘Look, that’s going to block the Prime Minister out’. It’s a very important moment for the country. But it’s also a very important moment to show that you’re being prime ministerial.’
Meanwhile, Ian Acheson, an aide who advised Michael Gove on extremism, quit the Tories over Mr Sunak’s decision to leave the commemorations early. In his resignation letter, seen by The Telegraph, Mr Acheson said: ‘It was an act of either colossal stupidity or cynical calculation.
Either way, it revealed to me that while I still embrace a conservative philosophy, I am no longer willing to have it outsourced to a bunch of mendacious, incompetent and disreputable clowns.’
Labour leader Sir Keir said Mr Sunak ‘will have to answer for his own actions’ in leaving Normandy ahead of the international D-Day event but ‘for me there was nowhere else I was going to be’. He said: ‘It was my duty to be there, it was my privilege to be there.’
He said: ‘It was my duty to be there, it was my privilege to be there.’
While Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Sunak’s actions had brought ‘shame’ to the office of Prime Minister ‘and let down our country’.
Last night, a poll by YouGov found that nearly two thirds of Britons thought Mr Sunak’s decision was unacceptable.
Of 5,778 adults questioned, only eight per cent thought skipping the international ceremony was ‘completely acceptable’, while 65 per cent thought it was ‘unacceptable’.
But Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch accused opposition figures of trying to politicise the row. She said: ‘He met the British D-Day veterans which I think is very special – I think that was extremely important.
‘And the rest of it is just noise which people like Mr Farage, who went there with the personal photographer, are trying to capitalise on.’
During last night’s BBC election debate, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt said: ‘What happened was completely wrong, and the PM has rightly apologised for that, apologised to veterans but also to all of us, because he was representing all of us.’
