A Cabinet minister has insisted Rishi Sunak will not quit before the vote on July 4
Mel Stride, one of the Prime Minister’s closest allies, said there is “no question” Mr Sunak will lead the Conservatives into polling day.
It follows speculation he could quit in the wake of the D-Day debacle.
READ MORE: PM's D-day dodge was a 'breathtakingly terrible decision'
The Tory campaign has been plunged into chaos after the Prime Minister skipped a major international ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings on Thursday afternoon.
The event on Omaha Beach was attended by Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron, but it was left to Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron to represent the UK.
The decision sparked anger from supporters and opponents alike.
Mr Sunak apologised for the snub on Friday morning.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mr Stride acknowledged the Prime Minister is feeling the backlash “very personally”.
Rumours about the Prime Minister’s future spread after he decided to campaign without media on Sunday following accusations of “dodging” reporters’ questions on Saturday.
Former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries, a fierce critic of Mr Sunak, suggested in a late-night social media post on Saturday there were “rumours around tonight that Sunak’s about to fall on his sword”.
I have always said that Cameron was popped into the Lords and into a senior ministerial post for a reason.
— Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) June 8, 2024
I thought maybe it was to replace Sunak at an earlier stage.
Rumours around tonight that Sunak’s about to fall on his sword.
There are no MPs - only Ministers.
If…
But Mr Stride told Sky News Mr Sunak will “absolutely” lead the party into the election.
“There should be no question of anything other than that,” he said.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak’s accused of D-Day ‘dereliction’ after skipping ceremony
He also denied that “all is lost” for the party, despite an average 20-point poll deficit to 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”.
The alternative for voters, he said, is to “go to Labour, who have got no plan, who simply are going to this ‘Ming vase strategy’ where they’ve got a poll lead, they don’t want to say anything, tell you anything, no plan, no ideas, anything about the future”.
The Work and Pensions Secretary told Sky News that Labour hopes to “drift across the line almost without anybody noticing”.
He told Sky’s Sir Trevor Phillips: “To your point about whether ‘all is lost’, we have four weeks, that’s a long time in politics.”
He said Mr Sunak “deeply regrets” his decision to leave D-Day 80th anniversary events in Normandy early.
Mr Stride said Mr Sunak is “deeply patriotic” and committed to supporting veterans.
He added: “The Prime Minister has accepted that he made a mistake. He has apologised unequivocally for that.
“I think he will be feeling this personally, very deeply, because he’s a deeply patriotic person. He will be deeply uncomfortable with what has happened.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has defended his claim that Mr Sunak’s early exit from D-Day commemoration events in France demonstrated that he did not understand “our culture”.
Asked if he was trying to highlight Mr Sunak’s British-Asian background, Mr Farage pointed to the contribution made by Commonwealth troops and suggested he was talking about the Prime Minister’s “class” and “privilege”.
The Reform UK leader told BBC1’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I know what your question is leading at – 40% of our contribution in World War One and World War Two came from the Commonwealth.
“He is utterly disconnected by class, by privilege from how the ordinary folk in this country feel. He revealed that, I think spectacularly, when he left Normandy early.
“And out there now there are millions and millions of people who were Conservative voters, traditional Conservative voters, not the red-wallers, who are now thinking ‘Do we go on supporting the Conservatives or do we support Reform?’
“And this is going to be, I think, the acid test of this election.”
READ MORE: Swinney: SNP will work with Labour government
Mr Stride hit out at the Reform leader: “I think they are suggesting things – I’m not going to go any further than that because I didn’t want to stoke this whole thing up – but it just seems to me that that’s an ill-advised thing to have said.”
He added: “I feel very uncomfortable with that. We’ve had in our country, and it’s a source of great personal pride – as somebody who supported the Prime Minister, wanted him to be the leader of our party and our prime minister – that I’ve sat around a Cabinet table that’s the most diverse in history.
“And I’m very proud of the fact that we have a British Asian who is right at the top of our Government.”
Mr Sunak’s “involvement in Government has been characterised by outstanding public service, and I’m very proud of that”.
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