On Thursday morning, he addressed an audience at the UK’s national commemoration event in Normandy, telling veterans: “We owe you everything.”
Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: “The Prime Minister has ducked out of the international D-Day event to fly back to the UK to campaign. I am here in Normandy in a personal capacity because I think it matters. Does he?”
Speaking to The Telegraph in Normandy, he said he was making TikTok videos throughout the day to educate young people about D-Day and had travelled to the beaches “many times” to pay his respects.
“I’m outputting a lot of coverage on TikTok, because the fact that a Royal British Legion poll showed that 52 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds have never heard of D-Day I think is appalling and a complete failure of the educational system,” he said. “So I’m putting out a lot of educational promotional stuff on TikTok to tell young people: ‘Hey, look, this really matters.’
“This, sadly, is the last time we will have a gathering of veterans for a big occasion like this. Nothing would have stopped me being here.”
Mr Sunak had used his interview with Mr Brand to reject Labour accusations that he “lied” by saying the party would hike taxes by £2,000 - claims which were later criticised by the UK statistics watchdog.
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Mr Sunak had claimed that “independent Treasury officials” have costed Labour’s policies “and they amount to a £2,000 tax rise for everyone”.
But the Treasury’s permanent secretary James Bowler said ministers had been told not to suggest civil servants produced the figure.
Asked whether the numbers were instead based on assumptions drawn up by Tory advisers, Mr Sunak said: “No. The analysis and the working is done by Treasury officials.”
A Conservative Party spokesman told the Politico website that Mr Sunak was “honoured” to have been involved in the commemorations, which were also attended by Sir Keir.
The Prime Minister said in his speech: “Each of you who contributed that day – sailor, soldier, aviator, civilian – whether you fought on the beaches, or parachuted from the skies, or flew fighters or gliders, whether you were an engineer or a radio operator or an intelligence officer, your actions freed a continent and built a better world.
“You risked everything, and we owe you everything. We cannot possibly hope to repay that debt, but we can and we must pledge never to forget.”
Mr Sunak said veterans had “taught generations of young people about the horrors of war”, adding: “Yet, with each passing year, it falls now to those of us who listened in awe to your stories to pass them on to our own children and grandchildren.
“Because only by remembering can we make certain that the cause you fought for, that so many of your friends and colleagues died for, that great cause of freedom, peace and democracy, will never be taken for granted.”