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Rishi Sunak has asked the British public to “find it within their hearts” to forgive him over his decision to return early from D-Day commemorations in France, as he prepares to launch the Conservative party election manifesto.
After last week’s debacle, the prime minister hopes to revive his misfiring Tory campaign on Tuesday with policies that include the promise of more cuts to national insurance and a tough stance on migration.
But with the row persisting over his decision to skip a D-Day event on Omaha Beach in favour of an ITV interview that he used to attack Labour on tax, Sunak pleaded with voters to accept his apology made last Friday.
“The last thing that I wanted to do was cause anyone any hurt or offence or upset, which is why I apologised unreservedly for the mistake that I made,” he told the BBC’s Panorama.
“I can only ask that I hope people can find it within their hearts to forgive me and also look at my actions as prime minister,” he said, citing government policies to help veterans and boost defence spending.
New polling by YouGov found 45 per cent of Britons thought the Tories were running the worst election campaign, up 11 percentage points on last week. Some 10 per cent thought Labour was running the worst campaign.
Sunak hopes to get back on the front foot on Tuesday by focusing on the Conservative manifesto and his promise to carry on cutting national insurance.
Senior Tories said the plan was to further cut the rate of employee contributions from 8p to 6p, allowing the government to say it has halved the tax over the course of a year from 12p.
Sunak has also been consulting ministers over the use of tougher language regarding the European Court of Human Rights in relation to his controversial Rwanda asylum policy.
Sunak has said he would not let a “foreign court” block deportations of asylum seekers to the central African nation, but many moderate Conservatives have warned him not to explicitly commit to pulling out of the ECHR.
Sunak said the manifesto would include commitments to “lower taxes, protect pensions, increases in defence spending, a more sensible approach to net zero and a clear plan to both stop the boats [crossing the English Channel] and bring down the levels of migration”.
He confirmed the policy prospectus would including a commitment to “continue to cut people’s taxes, because I believe in a country where people’s hard work is rewarded”.
During the BBC interview, Sunak was repeatedly challenged to explain why voters should believe his promises when taxes in the last parliament had risen, hospital waiting lists had soared and net annual migration had only recently started falling from highs of over 700,000.
Sunak admitted it had become more difficult for people to buy their own home under his government. “It has got harder, and I want to make sure that it’s easier,” he said.
“What we will do is not just build homes in the right places and do that in a way that is sensitive to local communities, but make sure that we support young people into great jobs so they can save for that deposit,” he said.
Angela Rayner, Labour deputy leader and shadow housing minister, said: “Rishi Sunak’s confession that having a home of your own has got harder under the Tories is a damning indictment of 14 years of housing failure. Home ownership is a pipe dream for young people in Britain today.”