Rishi Sunak’s new five-word excuse for skipping D-Day ceremony
Rishi Sunak gave a five-word excuse for the reason he skipped part of a D-Day ceremony in Normandy – and then added… ‘it was incredible.’
The Prime Minister left D-Day commemorations in Normandy last Thursday so he could return to London to record the ITV chat. The broadcaster has said the timing of the interview was suggested by the Conservative Party.
Mr Sunak was absent from an international ceremony attended by world leaders including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The UK was represented instead by Foreign Secretary David Cameron. Labour leader Keir Starmer was at the event where he was pictured meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Following criticism of his decision, Mr Sunak on Friday issued an apology as he admitted it had been a “mistake” to go home early. As he hit the campaign trail in West Sussex on Monday, the PM pleaded for voters to accept his apology. “I just hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me,” he said.
In the chat, which will be screened on ITV tonight at 7pm, Mr Sunak twice commented on how the 80th anniversary commemorations had over-run. “It all just ran over,” he said. “It was incredible, but it just ran over.”
The Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney responded: “This is proof that Rishi Sunak simply didn’t care enough to stay in Normandy. How he brushes this off is frankly insulting. Rishi Sunak does not deserve to be Prime Minister. Honouring the sacrifice of our veterans should be a privilege, instead Sunak treated it as an inconvenience”
During the 30-minute exchange, ITV Tonight presenter Paul Brand also asked Mr Sunak “have you ever gone without something?” “Yes, I mean, my family emigrated here with very little. And that’s how I was raised. I was raised with the values of hard work,” the PM replied.
Pushed on what he’d gone without as a child, Mr Sunak said: “Oh, we went without lots of things because my parents wanted to put everything into our education and that was a priority.” But when asked what sort of things had to be sacrificed, he could only say: “Lots of things.” He then laughed.
As Mr Brand pressed him to give an example, he said: “All sorts of things like lots of people. There’ll be all sorts of things that I would’ve wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have.” He added: “Famously, Sky TV, so that was something that we never had growing up actually.”
Mr Sunak, 44, attended one of the country’s most expensive boarding schools, Winchester College. He and his wife Akshata Murty are the richest inhabitants of Downing Street in history. Their combined £651million fortune put them above the King on the list of the wealthiest people in the country. It is driven largely by Ms Murty’s stake in Infosys. an Indian IT company her father founded.
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “Millions of kids are going into school hungry. Try telling them that missing out on Sky is a sacrifice. Every time the PM opens his mouth he shows how out of touch he is. Let’s not forget that he went to one of the country’s most exclusive public schools and boasted about not knowing any working-class people growing up. And the veterans who we honoured last week will be dismayed to hear the PM was seemingly inconvenienced by the commemorations ‘running over’.”
In the ITV interview, Mr Sunak praised Nigel Farage. Asked what he thinks about the Reform UK leader, the PM said: “I’ve got respect for Nigel.” Questioned on what he admires about him, he replied: “It’s right that he’s highlighted migration as an issue because I think it is an issue.”
