Election latest: Minister defends 'deeply patriotic' Sunak over 'biggest political gaffe in memory' (2024)

Rishi Sunak is "deeply patriotic", a Cabinet colleague has told Sky News, as the controversy over the prime minister's D-Day snub rumbles on in the run-up to the election.

Responding to ongoing criticism of the Tory leader,Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said his boss had recognised he had made a mistake over his decision to leave the 80th anniversary events in Normandy early to carry out a TV interview and would be "feeling this very deeply".

In the face of a backlash from rivals, veterans and some within his own party, Mr Sunak was forced to apologisefor skipping an international ceremony attended by world leaders including US President Joe Biden to mark the allied landings.

Among those to wade into the row was Reform UK leader Nigel Farage who told Sky News that the debacle proved Mr Sunak was "not a patriotic leader of the Conservative Party".

Mr Sunak is campaigning in Yorkshire without the usual media pack today after facing accusations of "dodging" reporters' questions on Saturday amid the continuing D-Day furore.

Speaking to the Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillipsshow on Sky News, Mr Stride said: "I do know Rishi pretty well, in fact I consider him as something of a friend, and I know he is a deeply patriotic person who cares greatly about this country.

"I know he will be feeling this very deeply."

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated his party's pledge not to raise personal taxes, saying his manifesto will contain no "tax surprises".

His party has said it won't raise income tax, national insurance or VAT for five years (see post at 9.11am).

"We will launch our manifesto very soon and that will have no tax surprises in it because all of our plans are fully funded and fully costed and none of them require tax rises over and above the ones that we've already announced," he said.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have vowed not to raise taxes should they win the general election.

That's despite warnings from an Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) report that tax rises would be necessary to maintain funding to public services from whichever party wins the general election.

"They can cut the scope of what the state provides, or accept further worsening of public services which already look under strain," IFS research economist Bee Boileau said.

"Or they can raise taxes, or borrow more, in order to top up spending and maintain real-terms levels of departmental funding.

"Neither the Conservative Party nor the Labour Party has been clear about which of these options they would take. Neither has shown any ambition to cut the scope of the state."

Director of the IFS, Paul Johnson, told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips earlier that neither party wants to talk about the "scale of the challenge facing them" (see post at 9.59am).

However, Sir Keir insisted "we are not returning to austerity".

"What we do need to do, just to take up the challenge that's been put to us is, we do need to grow the economy," he said.

"We do need to make sure that the economy and living standards across the whole country are growing and that's why step one, in government if we get to serve our country, will be to stabilise and grow our economy."

Former deputy leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson has said Michael Mosley was a "hero" to him, after a body was found in the search for the TV doctor who went missing on a Greek island.

"Through courageous, science-based journalism, Michael Mosley has helped thousands of people get well and healthy," Mr Watson said.

"I'm one of them. He was a hero to me."

Mosley is known for appearing on This Morning and The One Show.

His agent confirmed he was missing on Thursday, sparking a massive search operation.

The body was found close to a cave complex beside Agia Marina on Symi, around 10 metres from the sea, and did not appear to show any signs of injury, the mayor of Symi Lefteris Papakalodoukas told Sky News.

You can follow all the latest updates here:

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride has insisted the prime minister will lead the Conservative Party into the general election.

Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips a short time ago, Mr Stride said there "should be no question of anything other than that".

There had been speculation he could quit in the run-up to polling day on 4 July as he faces ongoing criticism for leaving D-Day commemorations early this week.

Former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries, a fierce critic of Rishi Sunak, suggested last night there were "rumours around" that Mr Sunak was "about to fall on his sword".

Mr Stride, who is one of Mr Sunak's closest allies, also denied that "all is lost" for the party, despite trailing in the polls behind Labour.

He said "taxes are coming down" and "we can continue that journey because of our stewardship of the economy and the fact we have got a plan".

He told Trevor: "To your point about whether 'all is lost', we have four weeks, that's a long time in politics."

ByJason Farrell, home editor

Rishi Sunak dressed as a purple wizard and Sir Keir Starmer's feeble punches in a gym.

These are the images teenagers are sharing in school on TikTok- all being pushed out by party campaign teams to target the young.

For our Bench Across Britain series, we took our people's parliamentary bench to Cardinal Newman Catholic School in the Bedfordshire town of Luton, where we discovered young people are following this election closely online.

"I'm getting some from the Conservative Party and some from Labour," says 17-year-old Hope Campbell, a Year 12 pupil.

She and other students quickly pull up a photoshopped image of the prime minister dressed as a wizard with the caption "you've been cursed by the Auramancer (-999999 aura if you don't send this)", which refers to an on-trend joke among teenagers about "aura".

Hope explains: "So basically there's a whole joke about aura - you get positive points if you do something good, and then if you do something like embarrassing or bad you get negative points.

"So, this is kind of like something put on by the Labour Party to say that if you vote for the Conservative Party, you'll get like minus nearly a million points."

Hope and her friend Eve Kelly, 17, sayLabourseem to be winning the TikTok war, someone from Gen-Z must be producing their content.

But the Conservatives are pushing back. A TikTok video put out by them shows Sir Keir doing a bad job of punching a punchbag.

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The prime minister has faced criticism for leaving the 80th anniversary D-Day commemorationsearly to record a TV interview that's due to go out next week.

Rishi Sunak has since apologised - saying that "on reflection" leaving early "was a mistake",but also that itshouldn'tbepoliticised.

Niall Paterson looks athow damaging thismisstepis for Mr Sunak with Clare Pearsall, former Conservative special adviser at the Home Office,and Joe Twyman, the co-founder of the polling company Deltapoll.

Plus, our chief political correspondent Jon Craig tells us just how big of a political blunder it was.

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The final guest on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips isPaul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

This week, the IFS has said there is a "conspiracy of silence" between Labour and the Conservatives over future tax and spending plans.

Clarifying the comments, Mr Johnson said neither party wants to talk about the "scale of the challenge facing them".

He says they don't want to talk about tax increases because "that frightens voters".

However, given the challenges in areas like healthcare, defence and local authority finances, spending cuts are "implausible", he says.

And yet both parties have committed to getting debt down.

In other words, Trevor says, they are going to have to "find the money from somewhere " so it may have to be "tax rises of some kind".

Mr Johnson says: "Maybe they're just hoping they get lucky."

"I think there are things that I think it's reasonable not to talk about, but I think there are also things where if they've got plans, they should be telling us," he adds.

The IFS has warned both the Tories and Labour their plans lock them into "sharp" spending cuts, with neither "serious about the underlying principle of getting debt falling".

In its assessment of campaigning, the IFS said forecasts suggest whoever is the chancellor in the autumn will be "fortunate" to meet the fiscal rule of getting debt on a downward path between 2028/29 and 2029/30.

That's an aim Labour and the Conservatives have both committed to - something Mr Johnson described as "bizarre".

That's all for this week's episode of Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

The leader of the Liberal DemocratsSirEd Davey has said his party is putting forward proposals to ensure the "tough job" of being a carer is "properly rewarded".

He says a £2 hourly pay rise could also help tackle the care worker shortage.

"If you paid this extra money to care workers, I think people would make a choice of not working in supermarkets or Amazon warehouses and things like that because they would feel that the tough job of being a carer would be properly rewarded," he says.

He also says his party's plans aim to look after "the millions of family carers".

The issue is personal to leader Sir Ed Davey, who is a carer for his son John, who has a neurological condition and learning difficulties.

He tells Trevor: "There are millions of people who have similar experiences to me and my family where they are doing a lot of the caring.

"If we support carers who are caring for their loved ones at home, then actually a lot of the caring will be done by families.

"If you are more generous with respite care, with carers' allowance and helping people into work so they can balance caring and working - we have got a full package so yes, it is about paying care workers better and valuing them more.

"It is also [about] looking after the millions of family carers."

Up now on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips is the leader of the Liberal Democrats, SirEd Davey.

Trevor begins by asking whether he has found a "magic money tree" after the Lib Dems announced plans to create 1,000 new hospital beds to end the "corridor crisis" in hospitals.

Mr Davey insists "everything is being fully costed".

He says the Lib Dems are putting healthcare "right at the centre" of their campaign, saying that the NHS is "in a real crisis at the moment and has to be the priority".

He adds that the Lib Dems are "not going to increase personal taxation" when people are "suffering with the costs of living".

"I think even higher taxes is just the wrong thing to do," he says.

He adds the party instead plans to tax "the banks, the social media giants and the oil and gas companies".

The Lib Dems are ramping up their focus on health and social care ahead of its manifesto launch next week, which will include a dedicated chapter on care.

The row over Rishi Sunak's decision to leave D-Day commemorations early rumbles on - with Conservative commentatorTim Montgomerie calling it "the biggest gaffe I can remember in politics".

He says it was bigger than Theresa May's manifesto gaffe - when she was forced into a U-turn over her social care policy dubbed the "dementia tax" - and bigger than the Gillian Duffy gaffe, a hot mic moment in 2010 when Gordon Brown told his advisers the meeting with her was a "disaster" and that she was "just a bigoted woman".

Mr Montgomerie gives his assesment: "The danger now is there's such a loss of confidence in the campaign, such a lack of hope, particularly coming so soon after Farage's U-turn."

Morale in the Tory party is at "rock bottom", he adds.

"Rishi Sunak is not a bad man. He made a massive error. But it's one of those things that I think we will be pondering for years to come as to how it happened."

It won't just define the election campaign, he says: "It will define his premiership."