An ally of Rishi Sunak has insisted the prime minister will “absolutely” continue to lead the Conservative election campaign after his D-day ceremony blunder, which triggered fury within the party.
The prime minister was campaigning in Yorkshire on Sunday without media appearances, after cutting short his attendance at the 80th anniversary of D-day in France with other world leaders.
Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, said Sunak would not resign over the move in the middle of an election campaign.
Asked whether Sunak might hand over the Conservative leadership before the 4 July 4 election, Stride dismissed the idea.
“There should be no question of anything other than [Sunak continuing to lead the party],” he told Sky News.
Stride said Sunak “deeply regrets” his decision to leave the D-day events early, calling the prime minister “deeply patriotic” and committed to supporting veterans.
“He has recognised that he made a mistake. He deeply regrets that. He has apologised unequivocally for that,” Stride said.
“The prime minister has accepted that he made a mistake. He has apologised unequivocally for that.
“And I think he will be feeling this personally, very deeply because he’s a deeply patriotic person. He will be deeply uncomfortable with what has happened.”
Sunak has been criticised by politicians across the spectrum for his decision, and caused outrage in his party. The choice to return to the UK early to resume campaigning left Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, and Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, to occupy his space on the world stage in France.
However, Farage has also been criticised for claiming that Sunak’s early exit demonstrated the prime minister did not understand “our culture”.
Asked if he was trying to highlight Sunak’s British-Asian background, Farage pointed to the contribution made by Commonwealth troops and suggested he was talking about the prime minister’s “class” and “privilege”.
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The Reform UK leader told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I know what your question is leading at – 40% of our contribution in world war one and world war two came from the Commonwealth.
“He is utterly disconnected by class, by privilege, from how the ordinary folk in this country feel. He revealed that, I think spectacularly, when he left Normandy early.”
However, Stride said Farage’s remarks were “uncomfortable”, while Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, said the suggestion that the prime minister was not part of “our” culture was “dog-whistle” code.
“I think this is a classic Nigel Farage trick: lean just enough to signal a bit of a dog-whistle and then lean straight back and sound perfectly reasonable and say something good about the contribution that Commonwealth soldiers, ethnic minorities made towards the war effort,” she said.
“We can all see exactly what Nigel Farage is doing. He’s got form; it is completely unacceptable. This is a man that has a track record of seeking to divide communities, who just wants to do it with a veneer of respectability whilst he’s at it.”
