‘As we gather here today, it is not just to honour those who showed such remarkable bravery on that day … it’s to listen to the echoes of their voices, to hear them, because they are summoning us.” So President Joe Biden movingly told the international D-day commemoration ceremony at Omaha beach in Normandy on Thursday. But Rishi Sunak was not there to listen alongside Britain’s wartime allies. Instead, he had departed France after taking part in the British commemoration earlier in the day, returning to the UK to do an election interview with ITV, leaving the foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, to represent Britain in his place.

This will prove to be a defining moment of this general election campaign, because it tells us something fundamental about the man who, having been chosen to lead the country by his party a year and a half ago, is for the first time seeking a mandate from the electorate.

Just as the liberal democracies again face a growing threat – this time from enemies of freedom like Vladimir Putin – the prime minister should have been there with the leaders of the US, France and Germany to remember the bravery of those who helped rescue Europe from fascism 80 years ago. It is likely to be the last significant anniversary commemorations attended by survivors of D-day. That Sunak did not understand its significance, or the snub that his failure to........

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