Rishi Sunak made a “mistake” by missing a major international ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day to give a TV interview about the election instead, a Conservative peer said. 

Lord Shaun Bailey, who was the Tory candidate in the 2021 London mayoral election, said Mr Sunak should have attended the ceremony alongside the likes of Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron. 

Mr Sunak did take part in D-Day commemorations in Normandy, attending a British ceremony yesterday morning. 

But he did not attend the international gathering with other world leaders. Instead, the Prime Minister sat down with ITV to defend claims he had made about Sir Keir Starmer’s tax plans. 

Lord Bailey told GB News: “There’s two ways to look at this. You are in the middle of a campaign, you want to make a big impact. The best impact you can make at this point is being seen on the world stage with the biggest leaders in the world.

“That is probably the way to go. On top of that, you have possibly the biggest event in the last 100 years that they are celebrating, you should be there, it sends a message.”

He added: “I think it was a mistake to leave.”  

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