D-Day debacle: Lord Cameron refuses to say if he warned Rishi Sunak against coming home early

The Foreign Secretary on Thursday declined to deny that he warned Rishi Sunak against leaving D-Day events in France early after the decision led to election campaign humiliation for the PM.

Lord Cameron stepped in to represent the UK at a gathering of world leaders in Normandy while Mr Sunak dashed home to resume campaigning with an ITV interview.

“He was then very frank about it, and said that he made a mistake and apologised,” the Foreign Secretary told Times Radio, after opposition parties including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage seized upon the error.

Pressed on reports that he warned the Prime Minister against leaving early, Lord Cameron said: “I'm not going to get into my advice, or my department's advice, to the Prime Minister.”

He added: “We're part of a team. The thing you have to remember, in politics, it's a team game, and I support my leader, and I support him as our prime minister. He's fighting an energetic campaign, and I'm right behind him.”

Mr Sunak apologised anew for the D-Day debacle in a Sky News election special on Wednesday night, before heading on Thursday to a G7 summit in Italy which will take him off the campaign trail for two days.

Lord Cameron confirmed that at the G7, the PM would be announcing “a whole series of sanctions” against Russia as Britain leverages its new-found ability since Brexit to levy its own sanctions outside the European Union.

Pressed on whether Brexit had been a success after he called the referendum in 2016, the former PM pointed to the sanctions power as one mark of Britain’s ability to go its own way in cooperation with its US and EU partners.

“We're using the relationship as best we can to maximize Britain's influence and impact in the world. And on this crisis we're facing with Ukraine and Russia, I think it's been very effective,” he said.

Lord Cameron also defended his own record on immigration, which was seen as contributing to voters’ decision to quit the EU, after Mr Sunak faced a hostile grilling over the issue from the Sky audience.