Two-thirds of voters believe Rishi Sunak leaving D-Day commemorations early is unacceptable, polling showed on Friday.
The Prime Minister did attend a British service in Normandy yesterday morning to mark the 80-year anniversary of D-Day but he returned to the UK to take part in a general election interview with ITV.
Mr Sunak tweeted this morning: “After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned back to the UK. On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer – and I apologise.”
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Polling by Savanta for The Telegraph found 68 per cent of people thought Mr Sunak leaving early was unacceptable, while 21 per cent believed it was acceptable and 11 per cent did not know.
Among 2019 Tory voters, 61 per cent said it was unacceptable, 31 per cent acceptable and nine per cent did not know.
Chris Hopkins, director of political research at Savanta, said “Rishi Sunak’s actions this week may well go down as the greatest act of electoral self-harm in modern UK political history.
“Our snap poll suggests that his decision to leave D-Day commemorations early are roundly deemed unacceptable by the majority of the electorate, including 61% of 2019 Conservatives. Whether they vote Conservative again remains to be seen.
“Because so much of the Conservatives’ electoral strategy was pinned on older, Reform UK-curious supporters, Sunak is uniquely vulnerable to upsetting this group of voters. How this will impact voting intention polls is genuinely unknown, because this situation is unprecedented.”
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