British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suffered a fresh setback in his struggling election campaign on Friday when he apologized for leaving D-Day commemorations early in order to give an interview attacking the main opposition party.
Sunak’s decision to leave early was met with dismay within his Conservative Party, which is trailing far behind the Labour Party in opinion polls and facing the prospect of a huge defeat on July 4.
Labour Leader Keir Starmer also attended the D-Day 80th anniversary events in northern France on Thursday and was seen talking to world leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the U.K.,” Sunak said in a post on X. “On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer — and I apologize.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suffered a fresh setback in his struggling election campaign on Friday when he apologized for leaving D-Day commemorations early in order to give an interview attacking the main opposition party.
Sunak spoke at a British-led event but delegated other duties to ministers including Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was pictured with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a memorial ceremony.
Senior Labour spokesperson Jonathan Ashworth accused Sunak of “choosing to prioritize his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans,” and “it is yet more desperation, yet more chaos, and yet more dreadful judgment.”
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey accused the prime minister of a “total dereliction of duty.”
Sunak has tried to portray himself as the person best placed to look after Britain’s security and he recently pledged to introduce mandatory national service if he wins the election.
In the interview with ITV on Thursday, Sunak doubled down on claims this week that if Labour win power they would raise taxes by 2,000 pounds ($3,500 Cdn) per household.
The original article contains 585 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!