D-Day absence an extraordinary own goal from the Conservatives

What an extraordinary own goal.

Like so many of the clearest, most stark stories, two pictures do almost all of the talking.

For days, the leaders’ teams for the Conservatives and Labour had been telling me things would be different on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Politics would take a backseat, the focus would be on the D-Day commemorations.

It did, and it was.

Until that is, it wasn’t.

Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave the most photographed, remarked upon and most poignant event in Europe early was always likely to be spotted.

And so it was, with the bloke who did his job eight years ago, Lord Cameron, playing ‘I’m not a leader’ gooseberry in a photo with three actual leaders – the presidents of the United States, and France and the Chancellor of Germany.

Rishi Sunak was instead hurtling back to the UK to get stuck back into campaigning – recording a lengthy interview with ITV.

We know that because ITV released an extract of it last night, in which the prime minister insisted he hadn’t lied about Labour’s tax plans.

Yes, that’s right – the prime minister left D-Day events early in order not to apologise for misleading claims about his opponents, only to apologise for leaving early in the first place.