Rishi Sunak has been getting mocked for skipping D-Day commemorations, with people emphasising the absurdity of a world leader missing the historic event.
The Prime Minister is under fire after ditching the 80th anniversary events to flee back to Britain to do an ITV election interview on Thursday afternoon. Mr Sunak admitted he made a mistake and apologised but he faces a huge backlash from across parties, including criticism from his own Veterans’ Minister Johnny Mercer.
The shameless Tory leader accused critics of “politicising” his decision to skip D-Day events, despite himself having abandoned the event to take part in a TV interview to attack Keir Starmer. In a broadcast clip on Friday morning, he claimed the focus “should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much”. But many said Mr Sunak’s decision was more than a mistake, with Conservative Home’s Tim Montgomerie saying it would be “political malpractice of the highest order if Rishi Sunak absented himself for an election interview”.
Questions were raised when an embarrassing photo of world leaders – including US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron – featured Foreign Secretary David Cameron, instead of Mr Sunak. Similarly a photo of Mr Starmer with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky raised speculation on why Mr Sunak had left the commemorations early.
Many have been ridiculing the PM online for what they see as a bizarre decision to leave the D-Day events early in favour of political campaigning back in the UK.
National Service irony
Mr Sunak was ridiculed for leaving the D-Day events early in the context of him having announced controversial plans to revive national service. As part of his election campaign, the PM said he wanted to force 18-year-olds to either volunteer in a community programme one weekend per month over a year, or enrol in a year-long military training scheme.
But the plans have come back to haunt the PM as many question why teens should have to commit to a year of national service when the PM couldn’t even commit to a full day of D-Day commemorations.
Mocking captions on veterans photos
As part of the D-Day celebrations, Mr Sunak took part in lots of photo opportunities with veterans. But the images have come back to haunt him with mocking captions.
Social media users put fake quotes ridiculing Mr Sunak which pretend he was telling the veterans to get out of his way as he needed to get back to the UK for a TV interview. One was from an account names Larry the Cat – after the No10 Downing Street pet.
TV show memes
Some social media users used screenshots from TV shows to mock Mr Sunak. One included a screengrab of a Little Britain sketch of an MP giving a ludicrous press statement after being found in compromising situations. The caption imagined a ridiculous excuse Mr Sunak could make about a helicopter unexpectedly picking him by his belt.
Another TV related image featured Mr Sunak being edited onto Bart Simpson’s face when he suffered an embarrassing moment in the Simpson’s movie. Mr Starmer’s face has been photoshopped onto Homer’s face with an edited caption about how badly the PM’s campaign is going.
World leaders’ photo jokes
Many mocked a photo of world leaders featuring Lord Cameron, alongside President Biden, Chancellor Scholz and President Macron, instead of Mr Sunak.
One took aim at Lord Cameron – a former Prime Minister – being in the shadow and called him a non-playable character from a video game. Another from the Liberal Democrats emphasised Mr Sunak’s absence with a cut out of a person next to the three leaders.