London
CNN
 — 

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has apologized for leaving the 80th anniversary commemorations of D-Day early in order to film a TV interview, a decision that prompted incredulity and further derailed his floundering general election campaign.

Sunak attended the first part of the commemorative events in Normandy, France, on Thursday, but skipped the international ceremony at Omaha Beach, which was attended by other world leaders and veterans of the Allied operation in 1944.

“The last thing I want is for the commemorations to be overshadowed by politics,” Sunak wrote in a long apology on X. “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.”

But the move had already caused disbelief in Britain, and represented another miscalculation in Sunak’s faltering election campaign.

Sunak left the event to record a campaign interview with broadcaster ITV, the network confirmed, in which he defended claims about the opposition Labour Party’s tax plans which fact-checkers and a senior civil servant have said were misleading or inaccurate.

More than 20 heads of state and government, and representatives from royal families across Europe, attended the international ceremony, which took place on a day of commemoration 80 years after the Allied beach landings in Nazi-occupied France laid the groundwork for the defeat of Germany in World War II.

The UK was represented by David Cameron, Sunak’s foreign secretary and a former prime minister, who took photographs alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden.

Also in attendance was Labour leader Keir Starmer, who was filmed speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the event. Labour was quick to condemn Sunak’s decision to skip the events, and the gaffe dominated British news coverage of the election on Friday.

“Yesterday’s D-Day commemorations were about remembering the bravery of all those who serve our country,” Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General, said Friday. “In choosing to prioritise his own vanity TV appearances over our veterans, Rishi Sunak has shown what is most important to him.”

Sunak is currently projected to lose the election on July 4 to Labour by a hefty margin, and his campaign has failed to land a decisive moment that could swing opinion polls in his favor.

In recent days his efforts were dealt a further blow when Nigel Farage, an architect of Brexit and a populist thorn in the side of numerous Conservative leaders, announced he would lead the Reform Party’s campaign, directly appealing to right-leaning Tory backers to abandon Sunak and vote for his insurgent group.