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Hello, this is a bonus episode of newscast.

Looking forward to the big BBC televised election debate on Friday night,

where seven major figures from the seven big parties will go head to head

under the wise chairwomanship of Michelle Hussein from the Today program. But it also coincides

with a massive breaking election news story. Just before 8 o'clock on Friday morning, Rishi

Sunak, the Prime Minister, apologized for leaving the D-Day commemorations in Normandy on Thursday

early. This is a big news story.

First of all, senior politicians don't like apologising for things

because it means news stories that are negative for them

run on for at least another day.

But you can also see why in this circumstance,

Rishi Sunak had to apologise.

The chorus of criticism, particularly from within his own party,

was getting pretty deafening. Also, by leaving D-Day early, he offended not only veterans,

but quite a lot of the people that he needs to vote for the Conservative Party, and people he'd been

appealing to throughout this campaign,

and also people who might be tempted to leave the Tories

and vote for reform instead.

So just from a political strategy point of view,

he had to close that down.

And third of all, last night I said on newscast,

...