A Cabinet colleague has told Sky News that Rishi Sunak is “deeply patriotic.” The controversy over the prime minister’s D-Day snub is rumbling on in the run-up to the election.
Responding to ongoing criticism of the Tory leader, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said his boss had recognised he had made a mistake in leaving the 80th-anniversary events in Normandy early to carry out a TV interview and would be “feeling this very deeply.”
In the face of a backlash from rivals, veterans and some within his own party, Mr Sunak was forced to apologise for skipping an international ceremony attended by world leaders including US President Joe Biden to mark the allied landings.
Among those to wade into the row was Reform UK leader Nigel Farage who told Sky News that the debacle proved Mr Sunak was “not a patriotic leader of the Conservative Party”.
