‘The stupidest of stupid ideas’: Rishi Sunak’s D-Day snub sparks Tory outrage

Rishi Sunak called it a “mistake” but many Conservative candidates, already facing electoral oblivion, had stronger words for the prime minister’s ill-fated decision not to attend a D-Day commemoration on Omaha Beach.

“Disastrous,” said one former defence minister. “Snubbing D-Day veterans really is the stupidest of stupid ideas.” Another Tory candidate called it “a catastrophe”. Even Sunak’s closest aides said it was “a fuck-up”.

Some compared his D-Day blunder to other recent British election fiascos, an ominous sign for a prime minister trying to overturn a 20-point Labour opinion poll lead.

“This is our ‘Gordon Brown/bigoted woman’ moment,” said one Tory candidate, referring to the former Labour premier’s unguarded description of a voter. Another compared it to Theresa May’s infamous “dementia tax” plan.

Sunak had spoken at a commemoration event at the British Normandy Memorial, close to the French village of Ver-sur-Mer, earlier on Thursday.

But by the afternoon, as world leaders including Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron gathered on Omaha Beach, the UK prime minister had disappeared.

Instead, Lord David Cameron, the British foreign secretary and a former prime minister himself, posed alongside Biden, Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz for photos that immortalised Sunak’s absence.

On Thursday evening, broadcaster ITV gave a hint of where the UK prime minister had gone when it released a preview clip of an interview with Sunak that is set to run next week.

The question being asked by Tory candidates was how Sunak allowed this to happen. Why did he think it was a good idea to skip a D-Day event attended by veterans, world leaders — and even his political rival Sir Keir Starmer — to give a partisan election interview to ITV instead?

As the blame game began, Sunak claimed on Friday “the itinerary for these events was set weeks ago, before the start of the general election campaign”, and that the decision not to attend the international event on Omaha Beach was long-planned.

One Tory official said Sunak’s diary had been organised by civil servants prior to the election being called and that his travel plans were not directly controlled by Conservative HQ staff.

There had been an open slot in his diary once the campaign had started, which he used to film the ITV interview, they claimed.

Tory candidates said this account stretched credulity and that CCHQ should shoulder responsibility for Sunak being put in front of the ITV cameras, where he repeated his heavily contested claims that Labour would increase taxes by £2,000 per household.

One person familiar with the scheduling of the interview said Sunak’s team only offered ITV Thursday afternoon as the single option for the encounter. The prime minister began his journey back from Normandy shortly after midday.

Isaac Levido, Sunak’s campaign chief, recognised early on Friday that the row would rumble for days unless the prime minister said sorry. “Isaac was furious when it all blew up — he said the PM would have to apologise, even though he knew it would be painful,” said one campaign insider.

Sunak, who is also advised by his political aide James Forsyth, posted his apology on X shortly before 8am on Friday, well aware of the likely impact.

“We knew that if we did this it would get very big, very quickly,” said a Tory staffer. Saying nothing was seen as an even worse option.

Former Tory ministers said ultimately the blame lay with Sunak, who should have realised how it would look.

One said: “This is what being PM is all about: honouring the war dead, talking to veterans, talking to fellow world leaders.”

A spokesman for Cameron, who has years of experience on the world stage, declined to comment on whether he had advised Sunak of the potential risks of not attending.

Another ex-minister said Sunak was “the incumbent, the statesman, the one who knows world leaders and is familiar with world affairs. Why would he abandon that stage — and the one we were all watching — for a TV studio? Nuts.”

Downing Street denied suggestions that Sunak had initially intended not to visit Normandy at all, saying he was “always scheduled to attend” events including the UK national commemoration, although the prime minister has previously taken a clumsy approach to international events.

In November 2022 Sunak reluctantly attended the COP27 climate summit in Egypt after Downing Street had previously said he was too focused on the domestic economy to travel.

But for many Tories it was further evidence that Sunak is simply not very good at politics, and that he is leading the party towards electoral disaster on an accelerated timetable that he forced on the party two weeks ago.

One senior Tory official said he expected it would be “only a matter of days” before Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party overtook the Conservatives in an opinion poll, a “crossover moment” freighted with danger for Sunak.

Sunak’s election campaign has focused on winning back Reform supporters, with an emphasis on defence, security and the restoration of national service: the Omaha Beach debacle may have undone much of that work. “This D-Day fiasco is a gift to Farage,” said one former Tory minister.

Senior party figures are even discussing scenarios for what happens after a Tory wipeout, notably if Farage succeeds in winning the Clacton seat in Essex and then attempts to take over the rump of the Conservatives.

Some are even looking to persuade Boris Johnson to return to Westminster in a by-election to “save the party”. One Tory special adviser said: “He’s potentially the only person who could stop Farage if it comes to it.”

Tensions are running high at CCHQ. “People are literally capitulating — they are going missing, aren’t picking up the phone,” said one well-connected Tory.

Levido had urged Sunak to hold the election in the autumn but was overruled by the prime minister. Tory insiders insisted the two men were getting on “perfectly well”, but the strains inside the building are growing.

Sir Craig Oliver, Cameron’s former media chief, said: “This is a massive unforced error but people make mistakes when they’re under immense pressure.”

Oliver, who worked with Levido on the 2015 Tory election campaign, said: “People like Isaac are very clever people who know how a campaign works.” He said it was up to Sunak and Levido to try to get things back on track.

That could prove difficult given the state of party morale. One senior Tory said some candidates were now so desperate that they were trying to cling on to their seats by telling voters that Labour was certain to win, but they should vote Tory “to make sure we have an effective opposition”.

Oliver said Sunak and Levido had a big task on their hands. “To paraphrase Churchill: they are going through hell and they have to keep going.”