IT WAS D for Disaster Day for the struggling Tories today as Premier Rishi Sunak was forced into a humiliating apology for skipping the 80th anniversary commemorations of the World War II invasion of France.
Mr Sunak skipped out of events in Normandy early in order to record an electioneering interview with ITV.
“On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer and I apologise,” the humbled Premier said as his judgement was assailed from all sides.
It is the latest unforced calamity to strike the Conservatives misfiring campaign.
Mr Sunak fired the starting pistol in a downpour without an all-too-necessary umbrella, he forgot which British teams were competing in the European football championships, held an event at a venue named after the most famous sinking ship in history and was caught lying about Labour’s tax plans.
His critics were not slow to take advantage of his scuttle from France before events marking the sacrifices of those who fell in the fight against fascism had concluded.
Former Tory spin doctor Craig Oliver said the episode showed that Mr Sunak did not know what the duties of a prime minister were, while the now-ubiquitous proprietor of the Reform party, Nigel Farage, said that he displayed a lack of patriotism.
The row allowed Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to adopt his favourite Union Jack pose, saying that Mr Sunak “will have to answer for his own actions,” adding that “for me, there was nowhere else I was going to be.”
Perhaps the most devastating criticism came from 98-year-old D-Day veteran Ken Hay: “What can you say? They are politicians. I think he’s let the country down, you know.”
Panic is mounting in the Tory ranks as two weeks into a campaign which most backbench Conservatives regarded as highly premature there is no sign of Mr Sunak closing the gap on Labour.
Mr Farage’s return to the thick of things has pushed Reform’s ratings to within 2 per cent of the becalmed Tories in some polls.
Should a poll put the Farageists ahead, Reform may gain momentum that will plunge the Tories into pandemonium.
In a chilling blow, Tory house newspaper The Telegraph revealed that support for the Conservatives among its readers has fallen from 74 per cent in 2019 to 46 per cent, mainly to the advantage of Reform.
Conservative morale has not been improved by campaign chief Richard Holden focusing on a personal survival strategy, trading in a marginal seat for a safe one.
The Tory chair has abandoned North West Durham where he secured a majority of just over 1,000 in 2019 to be imposed on Basildon and Billericay, hundreds of miles distant, where the 20,000-plus Tory majority should be enough to personally cushion the consequences of the disastrous campaign he is superintending.
Local Tories were given no choice over their candidate in a democratic affront echoing Labour’s crony-ridden selection-through-imposition process.
A Redfield and Wilton poll gave Mr Farage a 31 per cent favourability rating, 3 per cent ahead of the beleaguered Mr Sunak.
The same survey put Sir Keir on 41 per cent, and the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, whose campaign to date has consisted of cartoonish photo opportunities, on 17 per cent.
The Greens’ Carla Denyer and the Workers Party’s George Galloway both secured a 13 per cent favourability level.
The news was worse for Sir Keir in another Ipsos poll, which showed a 21 per cent negative gap between those dissatisfied with his leadership and those satisfied.
The only consolation for Mr Sunak is that Labour’s campaign has been bedevilled by rows over candidate selection, charges of institutional racism, and Sir Keir’s dozy debate performance in which he allowed the PM’s tax fibs to pass without rebuttal.
All this is turning the general election campaign into something of a slow bicycle race in which, however, one rider started considerably ahead of the other.
