It was the moment that D-Day turned into Dunkirk for Rishi Sunak.
At the early morning meeting held by the Prime Minister’s election strategists on Thursday, the fact that he would be missing the ceremony with Presidents Biden and Macron is said to have been dismissed by one of Sunak’s longest-serving aides.
‘It’s not important. It’s just a chance to pose together,’ they are claimed to have said.
Within 24 hours, Sunak had beat a humiliating retreat by issuing an apology for returning from France early to record a TV interview.
But while many critics have singled out ‘those around’ Sunak for the misstep, others point the finger directly at the Prime Minister.
One said: ‘Can you imagine Boris being told he should leave early to do a TV interview? He would just say: ‘Sod off, I’m staying.’
‘Even if it was advisers saying he didn’t need to stay, he as the principal could have ignored them,’ another source said. ‘Spads advise. Prime Ministers decide.’
It was nearly even worse; the original plan was for Defence Secretary Grant Shapps to go in Sunak’s place – until aides realised how odd it will have looked to have him standing next to world leaders. So Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was sent instead, on the grounds that at least Cameron had led his country at one stage.
Fatefully, they did not realise it was a job for Sunak. The decision to send Cameron is indicative for a Prime Minister accused of ‘not giving a toss about defence and foreign affairs’, a source familiar with the conversations said.
‘The one time they can counter that perception, they fail so spectacularly. It’s astonishing.’
A Conservative source said: ‘Rishi was the first PM to commit to 2.5 per cent spending on defence, a massive investment in our national security and defence industry. He was the first of Ukraine’s allies to visit them this year.
‘Before he went into politics, he and his wife have given a lot of support veterans’ charities and as Prime Minister he has prioritised making the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran with a dedicated minister and multiple programmes to make their lives better.’
But the D-Day fiasco has widened the schisms in the Tory party which run from No.10 down to the party grassroots.
The aftermath of D-Day saw briefings singling out two female aides to Sunak, which have piled pressure on an already strained working environment in Number 10.
‘A lot of tension has been bubbling for months between the political and the press sides,’ an insider said, raising concerns that the ‘boys’ – allies of Sunak including his chief-of-staff Liam Booth Smith and political secretary James Forsyth – have been blaming female staff for campaign errors, which they deny.
Counter-briefings then followed, with sources saying there were several meetings in which Sunak’s attendance was described as ‘optional’.
Concerns were raised that, with Sunak due to fly to Italy for the G7 this week, the PM’s diary was too full of government duties. It was also initially thought Sir Keir Starmer would not attend the International leader’s D -Day event.
‘It’s all just a shambles,’ an insider said of the Number 10 operation.
To add to the tensions, insiders say the French have been stoking the D-Day row – including the heavily denied claim that Sunak nearly boycotted the event entirely. The insiders claim this was pay-back for briefings about President Macron deliberately missing the leaders’ bus at the Queen’s funeral so that he could ride in a limo instead.
Cabinet ministers complain they are being kept out of the loop by the inner circle, with only Oliver Dowden believed to have the Prime Minister’s ear.
Even senior ministers say they have been told what will be in the manifesto for their departments, after it is all decided by Downing Street, and not consulted in the process. Party sources denied this.
One minister said the D Day decision was ‘catastrophic’ and that the way people closest to Sunak are being parachuted into safe Tory seats has only poured gasoline onto the fire.
Tories are furious that Will Tanner, Sunak’s deputy chief of staff who had played a key role in the manifesto process, spent the days before its crucial launch campaigning in Bury St Edmunds & Stowmarket.
He is one of a list of Sunak allies and aides who have been parachuted into safe seats – mostly using the rules that allowed the party to present Conservative associations with one-person or three-person shortlists as Friday’s deadline for selections approached.
‘We’ve seen that all over the country. It is very, very undemocratic. Good local candidates have been blocked from being considered, and the centre has presented associations with their crony candidate alongside two weak candidate.
‘It’s a stitch up – and it’s demoralising to candidates, demoralising to members.’
Last night a senior Tory on the right of the party called for a ‘reckoning’ after the election. ‘Whoever is the next leader should de-select these tossers.
‘They are responsible for tanking the party – and all they care about is getting their own safe seats.’
The source said there needs to be a ‘clear-out’ of the party while another Tory candidate said that, if after the election the Sunak centrists take over, he will quit it altogether.
Multiple candidates pointed the blame on Forsyth, Sunak’s old school friend. ‘His fingerprints are all over this. He has probably never knocked on a door in his entire life, he has no understanding of the Conservative Party – he’s just sitting in a dark room, carving up all these safe seats for his mates.’
And party chairman Richard Holden is facing calls to quit after claims of a ‘stitch up’ over how he was awarded a safe seat of Basildon and Billericay.
‘I’ve never witnessed so much opprobrium and hatred towards a Cabinet minister,’ a Tory elected alongside Holden in 2019 said. ‘He is a man devoid of morals. We are determined to get rid of him.’ Holden has denied the claims.
‘I hope Reform wins in Basildon and Billericay,’ one long-term Tory activist told the MoS.
Others blame Sunak’s leadership style. A source said: ‘He runs his diary like a CEO, When I have had meetings with him, it’s two minutes here, five minutes there. Everything is back to back. It is like he is running a big business – without the flexibility that you normally require in politics.’
The criticism is echoed by Conservative donors. Last week a donor who has been giving ‘£25,000 a year for ages’ to the party switched to funding Reform.
With four weeks left to go before polling day, Tory candidates are trying to make the best out of a grim set of cards.
After the D-Day debacle several Tory Red Wallers have told CCHQ to cancel deliveries of leaflets because they have the Prime Minister’s picture on them.
One told the MoS: ‘I am running a hyper-local campaign.
‘I haven’t got Rishi in any of my leaflets. I haven’t even got the word Conservatives. I’m hoping to get a written endorsement from Boris.’
Sunak loyalists hope the row will ‘blow over’. But a senior Tory adviser said the D-Day gaffe has cut through: ‘All our candidates are reporting it coming back on the doorsteps. The day after the election people will still be talking about it.’