Farage has gone too far with his D-Day attack on Sunak

It wasn’t long before Nigel Farage took the inevitable attack video. “Rishi Sunak comes to Normandy briefly but fails to attend the great international commemoration,” he said in a speech before the debate. “He doesn’t really care about our history. Frankly, he doesn’t really care about our culture… This man is not patriotic. He doesn’t believe in the country, its people, its history and, frankly, not even its culture. If you are a patriotic voter, don’t vote for Rishi Sunak.”

Jeremy Corbyn has been frequently attacked as unpatriotic, but that has more to do with his links to Sinn Fein, his appearances on Iranian state television and generally taking the non-British side in too many international disputes. That a party leader can say the same about Sunak is patently absurd. But it is meant to be inflammatory. Farage is trying to use Trump’s outrage to put himself at the centre of the debate.

So it’s perhaps worth mentioning what Sunak really did with the D-Day commemorations. It was a miscalculation. A big one, for which he has apologised, and I have no objection to the criticisms posted on this site. But given that so much weight is being given to what happened yesterday, it may be helpful to put things in context.

His commemoration programme began on Wednesday in Portsmouth, where he welcomed the Prince of Wales to the D-Day ceremony and sat with the King. This was the event that made the Queen cry. Sunak gave a reading: General Montgomery’s letter to the troops just before the invasion. He then met with veterans and their families, others who read at the ceremony, and servicemen and women. This was followed by a lunch with veterans and their families – where he visited every single table.

Sunak arrived at the British Normandy Memorial the next day and gave a speech, then headed off to the British ceremony in the small seaside village of Ver-sur-Mer. The Prime Minister spoke to veterans and their families, greeted Emmanuel Macron and walked down with him. They both then went to the memorial and spent half an hour meeting veterans: Sunak offered to push one of them through the memorial. After that, he and his wife spent an hour with veterans in a tent: again, they went to each individual table. Finally, Sunak and the King went to unveil a plaque at the newly opened Churchill Centre, which is part of the memorial. Once again, he spoke to veterans as they waited for the King to arrive.

That was the end of the British side of the ceremony. The King left the stage. Sunak followed shortly after. David Cameron was asked to represent Sunak during the international ceremony in Omaha Beach that afternoon. The photos there have become infamous: a foreign minister standing next to three G7 heads of state and government while his boss is being interviewed by ITV in London.

I wonder if Cameron, who knows a thing or two about campaign blunders, could have pointed out to Sunak that this might not be the best solution. But skipping the afternoon ceremony (which No 10 said no veteran would attend) had always been Sunak’s plan. “I stuck to the schedule that was given to me weeks ago,” he said on his Sky News Excuse me“After careful consideration, it was a mistake not to stay longer – and I apologized for that. But I also don’t think it’s right to be political in the midst of D-Day veterans.”

Would it have been “political” to change that plan? Of course not. Sunak could argue that political action – such as his sweeping veterans agenda – is more important than political ceremony. He is discovering how important optics are in politics. Perhaps even crucial. But to spin this debacle into evidence that Sunak somehow doesn’t care about British history, people or culture is a disgusting slander – and Farage should be ashamed of making the claim.