It didn’t take long for Nigel Farage to record the inevitable attack video. ‘Rishi Sunak pops into Normandy but omits to go to the big international commemoration,’ he says in a pre-debate warmup. ‘He doesn’t really care about our history. He doesn’t really care, frankly, about our culture…This man is not patriotic. Doesn’t believe in the country, its people, its history or frankly even its culture. If you’re a patriotic voter, don’t vote for Rishi Sunak.’
Jeremy Corbyn was frequently attacked for being unpatriotic but that’s more to do with his links with Sinn Fein, appearances on state-owned Iranian TV and in general taking the non-British side in a few too many international disputes. That a party leader can say the same about Sunak is palpably absurd. But it’s supposed to be inflammatory. Farage is seeking to deploy Trump-style outrage to insert himself at the centre of the debate.
So it’s perhaps worth mentioning what Sunak really did in the D-Day commemorations. It was a miscalculation. A big one, for which he has apologised and I don’t demur from the critiques published on this website. But given that so much weight is being placed on what happened yesterday, it may help to put things in context.
Skipping the afternoon ceremony (where no veterans were due to be present) was always Sunak’s plan
His programme of commemorations started in Portsmouth on Wednesday, where he welcomed the Prince of Wales to the D-Day ceremony and sat with the king. This was the event where the Queen wept. Sunak gave a reading: General Montgomery’s letter to the troops just before the invasion. He then met veterans and their families, others who read in the ceremony and servicemen and women. After that, there was lunch with veterans and their families – where he went to every single table.
Sunak arrived at the British Normandy Memorial the next day and gave a speech, then headed to the British ceremony in the small coastal village of Ver-sur-Mer. The PM addressed veterans and their families, greeted Emmanuel Macron and walked down with him. Both then went to the memorial and spent half an hour meeting veterans: Sunak offered to wheel one of them through the memorial. After that, he and his wife spent an hour with veterans in a tent: again, they went to every single table. Finally, Sunak and the King went to unveil a plaque at the newly-opened Churchill Centre, part of the Memorial. Yet again, he was talking to veterans whilst they waited for the king to arrive.
The British side of the ceremony then concluded. The King left. Sunak followed soon after. David Cameron was asked to stand in for Sunak during the international ceremony in Omaha beach in the afternoon. The photos there are, now, notorious: a foreign secretary, standing next to three G7 world leaders while his boss was in London being interviewed by ITV.
I do wonder whether Cameron, who knows a thing or two about election campaign mistakes, could have advised Sunak that this may be not be the best look. But skipping the afternoon ceremony (which No. 10 had been told would not be attended by any veterans) was always Sunak’s plan. ‘I stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me weeks ago,’ he said in his Sky News apology. ‘On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay longer – and I’ve apologised for that. But I also don’t think it’s right to be political in the middle of D-Day veterans.’
Would it have been ‘political’ to change this itinerary? Of course not. Sunak might argue that policies – such as his extensive veterans’ agenda – are more important than political ceremonies. He is finding out how, in politics, optics are crucial. Perhaps even decisive. But to stretch this debacle into proof that Sunak somehow doesn’t care about Britain’s history, people or culture is a revolting slur – and one Farage should be ashamed of making.
