Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak was struggling this weekend to contain a row over his decision to skip a D-Day landings commemoration in France on Thursday, which sparked a torrent of criticism from across the political spectrum and revived Tory worries about his political judgment.
Mr Sunak’s decision to return instead to London, where he did a pre-recorded television interview with ITV instead of joining 24 other world leaders for the event at Omaha Beach, capped a disastrous week on the general election campaign trail for the Tory leader.
Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party is now breathing down the Tory leader’s neck in polls. Fears were rife this weekend among senior Conservatives that Reform could even overtake them next week, which could spark panic in the Tory party.
The embattled prime minister apologised for missing the D-Day event and acknowledged it as a “mistake”, but it failed to quell the flow of red hot denunciations from political rivals over what was portrayed as an act of disrespect towards military veterans who fought in France 80 years ago.
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It was merely the latest in a string of gaffes from Mr Sunak that began with his widely-panned decision on May 22nd to announce the snap election for July 4th in the pouring rain outside 10 Downing Street, sparking a cottage industry of memes of the sodden prime minister.
“The role that D-Day plays in the British psyche is that of a blood sacrifice for freedom,” said David Wild, co-founder of lobbying firm Lodestone Communications, which has strong links to Labour.
Mr Wild said the commemoration was a golden political opportunity for the prime minister, but he had inexplicably squandered it and the damage was compounded because Labour leader Keir Starmer ended up looking more prime ministerial by staying on for it.
“Rishi Sunak managed to turn this golden opportunity into a golden gaffe by leaving early. Current polling has it that the only demographic [where Tories lead] is the 65+ cohort, exactly the people who will be most upset at Sunak’s lack of emotional intelligence ... The competition for the worst moment in Sunak’s campaign is now becoming a crowded field,” said Mr Wild.
The list of gaffes includes a trip by Mr Sunak to Wales at the beginning of the campaign where he asked local workers if they were looking forward to the Euros football tournament – Wales did not qualify.
In one of his first campaign events, in Derbyshire, Mr Sunak visited a warehouse with people who were presented as local workers, only for it to emerge that at least one of those who asked him a softball question was actually a Tory councillor.
He was also videoed at the Titanic Quarter in Belfast being asked by a local journalist if he was “captain of a sinking ship”.
Senior Tories including foreign secretary David Cameron and David Davis, who once contested the party leadership, acknowledged Mr Sunak’s D-Day mistake but defended his judgment overall.
However, the spectre of Mr Farage, who was in Normandy, hovered ominously over the prime minister.
“[Sunak] is completely disconnected from the centre of this country,” said the Reform leader.
