Rishi Sunak has warned Conservative MPs that election campaigning is not optional after a minister decided to fly to Greece on holiday.
During a campaign visit to a ceramics factory in the Midlands, the prime minister said he had been “out every day” and that the MPs he had spent time with were “working their socks off for their communities”.
Steve Baker, a Northern Ireland minister, announced he was going ahead with his holiday this week after MPs were led to believe the election would be held in the autumn.
Asked whether campaigning was optional for MPs, Sunak said: “No. Our MPs, candidates are working their socks off across the country actually. I’ve been out every day of this campaign, spending time with them. They’re working really hard.
“And what they’re talking to everyone about is the choice in this election – it’s very clear. We live in uncertain times, and those uncertain times call for a government that is prepared to take bold action, that has got a clear plan.”
He added: “All the MPs that I’ve been spending time with in the last four days are working their socks off for their communities.”
Some Conservative MPs and ministers are angry with Sunak for unexpectedly calling a summer election.
Baker told the Mirror this week: “The prime minister told everyone we could go on holiday and then called a snap election. So I’ve chosen to do my campaign work in Greece.”
He declined to respond to the prime minister’s remarks on Tuesday.
Sunak was visiting Churchill Ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent, where he took four questions, three from staff and one from the CEO.
During the Q&A session Sunak appeared to grant a question to a worker who had her hand up, Beverly Cumberlidge, before he was redirected by the Tory deputy chair, Jonathan Gullis, to someone else.
Cumberlidge later said she was disappointed she was not given the chance to question the prime minister, who spoke about making the UK “the best country in the world to be a veteran”.
“My partner suffers from PTSD, he was in the Falklands war, and he’s got no help,” she said. “We’ve got nowhere to turn to. He’s had counselling, but the counselling hasn’t helped so he just tries to do it on his own. He self-harms … There’s no support, there’s nowhere we can go.”
Asked whether she was satisfied with Sunak’s answers she said: “Not really, no … They want young people to go into the military. The pay isn’t good enough – why would they? They got rid of 20,000 police and then they reinstated 20,000. How is that [not] a cut? … There’s so much I wanted to ask him.”
Jade Burden, a veteran who works in HR at the company, asked Sunak whether he had a “plan to look after people in the future when they have then left the forces” following the national service scheme.
She later told reporters: “I understand what he is saying about looking after veterans; however, it is not always that plain sailing. The experience he has described is a lot different to what I experienced and what a lot of my friends experienced when they were part of the forces.”
The prime minister later told journalists he hoped his two daughters would have a chance to complete national service.
“My daughters are definitely more excited than they were when I announced maths to 18, so I can tell you that … I’m a dad, and so I do this first and foremost as a dad knowing that if I’m successful, then my daughters will do it.”
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, said: “From the economy, to apprenticeships, to veterans, once again Rishi Sunak thinks he can pull the wool over the public’s eyes.
“But they know what we know: that we are all worse off after 14 years of Tory chaos, neglect, and instability.”
