Sunak reignites anger over early D-Day departure with just four words

Conservative Party leader and prime minister Rishi Sunak was already facing a considerable backlash for deciding to leave a D-Day anniversary event in Normandy early in order to give an interview to ITV’s Tonight programmne, but now the fallout has intensified as more clips from the PM’s chat with Paul Brand were shared on Wednesday.

Sunak apologised for his decision on Friday, in a statement which saw him say that having the anniversary event “overshadowed by politics” is “the last thing I want”.

“After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I apologise,” he wrote.

He then went on to warn against people ‘politicising’ his mistake – one which saw him leave an event attended by politicians early, to give an interview about party political policy, to ITV News’ flagship Tonight programme which often covers politics and social affairs.

Sounds pretty political to us.

He said: “I think it’s important though, given the enormity of the sacrifice made, that we don’t politicise this. The focus should rightly be on the veterans who gave so much.”

On Monday, he went further and told reporters he “absolutely didn’t mean to cause anyone any hurt or upset”.

Sunak continued: “I just hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me and look at my actions that I’ve taken as prime minister, both to support our armed forces with an increase in defence spending, but also have the minister focused on veterans affairs around the Cabinet table, making sure this is best country in the world to be a veteran.”

But now, as the interview on Thursday is finally ready to be broadcast, further remarks from Sunak about the D-Day event have surfaced as he sat down to give the interview.

He told Brand: “I’m sorry to have kept you. It all just ran over.

“It was incredible, but it just ran over, so apologies for keeping you.”

Unsurprisingly, many social media users took issue with Sunak saying a historic commemoration event “ran over” – not least when he took the decision to leave early:

But that isn’t the only humiliating interview clip to be shared by ITV News ahead of the programme airing this evening, as Sunak also explained the true hardship of having to go without “Sky TV” in a bid to relate to voters.

“Like lots of people, there were all sorts of things that I would have wanted as a kid that I couldn’t have, right? Famously Sky TV, that was something that we never had growing up, actually,” he said.

The Leaders Interviews: Rishi Sunak – Tonight airs at 7pm on Wednesday.

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