‘The most expensive panic attack in history’ - How the reset strategy failed and the wheels came off altogether in week three

Following Rishi Sunak’s D-Day commemorations debacle, the Prime Minister was left having to deny that he was on the verge of quitting the race to become the United Kingdom’s next leader altogether. 

Interviews that were carved into the Prime Minister’s itinerary, now infamous for being the explanation for this apparent mix-up in Downing Street communications, were hastily scrapped, and Sunak retreated to his characteristic elusiveness that served as a cornerstone to his initial drive for popularity in the early days of being Chancellor.

At least for a time. 

When Sunak reemerged in the wake of the scandal days later - at a Neighbourhood Watch group in West Sussex - he would offer an apology and beg voters to ‘find it in their hearts to forgive’ him. Voters, many of them traditional Conservatives, would not, describing what happened as “inexcusable”; others who represented the 18% to 20% of voters that would continue to suggest they would vote Conservative at the next general election described their voting intention as being ‘in spite of Rishi.’

Advisers, aides, MPs and those loyal few remaining alongside a handful of Conservative Party bigwigs were said to be urging Sunak to avoid being the face of the Conservative Party campaign, it turned out, and to let somebody else take over. The lustre, or whatever sheen Sunak’s own personal brand possessed had well and truly rubbed off. Even Buckingham Palace was reportedly unimpressed by events. 

Among the onlookers was Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt, who appeared performatively outraged; her expression a mixture of anger, despair and terror as she became one of the first MPs to address the error. Mordaunt would participate in a leadership debate at the end of the second week of the general election campaign, and another towards the end of week three, where she would notably describe Sunak’s actions as simply, 'wrong… wrong… completely wrong.'

Barely concealed in her expression, however, was a degree of opportunism and schadenfreude. Mordaunt wanted Sunak to fail as much as anybody.