Rishi Sunak says sorry for leaving D-day events early to record TV interview
Rishi Sunak says sorry for leaving D-day events early to record TV interview
UK prime minister says it was ‘a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I apologise’
Rishi Sunak has apologised for leaving D-day anniversary events early to take part in a TV interview, admitting it was “a mistake not to stay in France longer”.
The prime minister had been heavily criticised for allowing the foreign secretary, David Cameron, to take his place in the late afternoon ceremony at Omaha beach on Thursday, while he left Normandy to do a prerecorded ITV segment to be broadcast next week.
On Friday, the prime minister said on X: “I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely.
“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.”
Conservative activists reacted with fury at the sight of Cameron standing alongside the French, German and US leaders, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Joe Biden, with one saying it had left them questioning whether to “bother to continue campaigning”.
And now he's complaining about Labour 'politicising' this. He's a politican, everything he does is politicised!
EDIT:
The full quote is just incredible and is some evidence that Sunak might in fact be the stupidest man in the world:
I also don’t think it’s right to be political in the midst of D-day commemorations. The focus should rightly be on the veterans and their service and sacrifice for our country.
So why the fuck did you run off and record a political interview in which your refused to apologise for the lie you told about politics for political reasons?
He's an absolute imbecile. It's not even going to go out for like a week, he could have picked any other day to record it on and it would have been fine.
Now in a week's time ITV are going to show it and it's just going to bring it all back up again.
Yeah, everyone will run it as 'The interview Sunak gave instead of honouring D-Day'.
What an absolute muppet.
Even the BBC's Chris Mason is having a pop at him for this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nnz0w41kvo
Yes, that’s right - the prime minister left D-Day events early in order not to apologise for misleading claims about his opponents, only to apologise for leaving early in the first place.
Serious unforced error - what were they thinking? Especially as the parties had agreed to suspend campaigning.
with one saying it had left them questioning whether to “bother to continue campaigning”.
I'd hate to be the one to break it to them...
Not sure if memes are allowed here, apologies if not...
Rishi may have the brains to run a company (maybe) but his public interaction of any kind is atrocious. I listened to the full five-minute apology, and it sounded utterly false. Every time he speaks, not just this apology, you can tell it has been scripted, especially when he's asked a question, and he replies with the identical repetition of something he's already said.
The amount of times he said the same sentence about the fact the itinerary was already set weeks ago. So you were always planning to leave early? I hope some evidence turns up to prove that he allegedly wasn't going to go to France at all. This is what the French government were told a few weeks ago, apparently.
Finally, don't make this political!? Too fucking late mate.
If he was any good as a CEO he'd have a senior role at his in laws company that has a market cap of $75bn as he'd be able to generate billions for them of extra revenue. The fact that he doesn't speaks volumes about his ability.
"We've left Normandy by mistake!"
I dunno why but this is my all-time favourite meme template. I also enjoyed "we've called an election by mistake!"
Yeah you really shouldn't bother continuing to campaign because he is literally the worst possible prime minister you could have picked.
But he was picked and that's a conservative problem. That frankly the conservatives deserve.
I can think of several worse picks, but yes he's A bad pick
What I mean though is he was hand-picked by the Tories, it wasn't as though there was an election where he ended up on top because all the other candidates were not chosen, like Theresa May. He didn't win by default or anything, they chose him.
They actually presumably thought about it and decided he was the best option. If that's what the party thinks is the best option, I think it's doomed as a political entity. I would not waste my time having anything to do with it.
The party elected Truss. They showed themselves unable to pick a decent leader. So the party machinery stepped in and did a bit better. It shows the state of the party.
'Own goal' doesn't even begin to describe it.
It's like he got so pissed off with his own party trying to stab him in the back that he's now doing the political equivalent of running it down.
Now I really hope the Liberals or Reform UK become the opposition party.
Hopefully this loses him the grey vote. Third place please. Doesn't even deserve to be in opposition.
I thought the picture of Biden, Schroeder, Macron and … the chap from Chipping Norton spoke volumes.
"Zo then, vich of us hasn't shagged ein svine?"
schwein
LOL I don't know why I am correcting your German and only correcting one word 😅
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The prime minister had been heavily criticised for allowing the foreign secretary, David Cameron, to take his place in the late afternoon ceremony at Omaha beach on Thursday, while he left Normandy to do a prerecorded ITV segment to be broadcast next week.
On Friday, the prime minister said on X: “I care deeply about veterans and have been honoured to represent the UK at a number of events in Portsmouth and France over the past two days and to meet those who fought so bravely.
Conservative activists reacted with fury at the sight of Cameron standing alongside the French, German and US leaders, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Joe Biden, with one saying it had left them questioning whether to “bother to continue campaigning”.
It was part of a series of pre-recorded ITV interviews with political party leaders that will be broadcast throughout the election campaign – meaning the prime minister could have recorded it at any point in the next four days.
On Thursday evening, ITV decided to release a short taster clip from the longer interview, in which Sunak was challenged about his tax claims, hoping to attract coverage ahead of Friday night’s televised debate between party representatives.
A Conservative source played down the diplomatic impact of the prime minister’s absence from the event, as they said Sunak would see Macron, Biden, Scholz and other key leaders at the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy, which starts next Thursday.
The original article contains 719 words, the summary contains 241 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
He’s certainly got his priorities.
To be fair, he wouldn’t have lost any ancestors in D-Day.
Even rich people died on D-Day. Not as many as the poor lads thrown into the meat grinder but the officer class got hit too.
Come on now fella, who his grandparents were pumped by is hardly of relevance here.
I merely think he may not have as deeply-felt reverent ideas about the day as other Brits.
No disrespect to his heritage, but it may not ring quite the same for him.