Rishi Sunak's campaign got off to an inauspicious start on May 22, when the British Prime Minister announced an early general election for July 4, despite his Conservative Party's 20-point lead over Labour. He looked shabby that day, soaked by a downpour on the steps of 10 Downing Street, his voice partly covered by the song Things Can Only Get Better, the anthem of Labour's victorious 1997 campaign by Tony Blair, played at full volume by anti-Brexit campaigners.
Since this unfortunate start, the 44-year-old incumbent leader has made one blunder after another. On Friday, June 7, he had to take up his pen on social media X to apologize for cutting short his presence at the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings.
On Thursday, he attended the ceremony at the British memorial with Emmanuel Macron, King Charles III and Queen Camilla, but returned to the UK immediately after to record a political interview on ITV, missing the crucial sequence at the American memorial with Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I [apologize]," said Sunak in a rare show of contrition.
His political error was obvious: In the official photographs, it was former prime minister now Foreign Secretary David Cameron who stood alongside the other leaders in a highly symbolic diplomatic sequence. Worse still, it provided a golden opportunity for his great rival Keir Starmer, Labour's leader, to be photographed exchanging views with King Charles III and Volodymyr Zelensky – allowing him to assume the mantle of head of government before his time. Even Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform UK party and candidate in the parliamentary elections, arrived in Normandy on the evening of June 5 to polish his patriotic image.
This lack of respect for an anniversary of major historical importance for Europe and the UK (which served as a rear base for the preparation of D-Day and sent over 60,000 soldiers to land in Normandy) has prompted a volley of devastating criticism. "I stayed, out of respect for the veterans, to say thank you on behalf of the country (...) and my children, who wouldn't be living in this peaceful world without them," said Starmer. Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, pointed out that "one of the greatest privileges of the office of Prime Minister is to honor those who serve [the country], but Rishi Sunak abandoned them on the beaches of Normandy."
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