SUNAK LET THE COUNTRY DOWN

98-year-old Normandy veteran Ken Hay sums up what everyone's thinking about Prime Minister

- PAUL HUTCHEON

RISHI Sunak has been hammered for for his "breathtakingly terrible" decision to snub a D-Day ceremony in favour of a telly interview.

The Prime Minister issued a grovelling apology after he received almost blanket condemnation for his Normandy clear-off.

He decided to return to the UK from France early, for a hastily arranged TV interview, after his £2000 tax attack on Labour was exposed as a "lie".

In doing so he missed a key event where world leaders including US president Joe Biden paid tribute to the fallen heroes on the landmark D-Day 80th anniversary.

It marks a new low for the Tory election campaign.

Labour leader Keir Starmer, who attended the full event, said: "Rishi Sunak will have to answer for his own actions.

For me, there was nowhere else I was going to be." First Minister John Swinney said the embattled PM had made a "foolish decision" to "turn his back on the D-Day commemorations".

He said: "It's a breathtakingly terrible decision on a number of counts.

"One, it was disrespectful to the veterans for the Prime Minister to leave as he did.

"Secondly, there was a major gathering of international leaders at which the president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany, the president of France, the president of Ukraine, a variety of leaders were present where I would have thought the Prime