What time is Rishi Sunak’s ITV interview tonight?
The ITV interview with Rishi Sunak recorded after he left a D-Day commemoration event will air tonight in the latest instalment of election programmes leading up to July 4.
The Prime Minister sat down with ITV’s Tonight show for a 30-minute interview in which he was questioned about his family’s wealth, his opinion of political opponent Nigel Farage and the immigration policy laid out in his recently published Conservative manifesto.
In clips released ahead of the interview, Mr Sunak said his parents had sacrificed “lots of things” when he was a child, including “famously Sky TV”.
The Tonight interview was recorded shortly after Mr Sunak returned from Normandy last Thursday, where he cut short his attendance at a D-Day event and left Lord Cameron in his place.
Here is everything you need to know about tonight’s interview.
What time is the ITV interview?
Mr Sunak’s interview with ITV News Editor Mr Brand will begin at 7pm on Wednesday, June 12. The programme will last half an hour, making it one of the shorter broadcasts of the election campaign so far.
Several broadcasters have aired election specials over the course of the campaign, with Mr Sunak having already spoken to the BBC’s Nick Robinson for a series of longer interviews.
The first televised campaign programme saw Mr Sunak go head to head with Sir Keir Starmer on June 4, which was followed by a seven-way BBC debate on Friday that featured Nigel Farage, Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner.
How to watch the sit down with Sunak
The programme, The Leadership Interviews: Rishi Sunak, will be available to watch live on ITV and the channel’s free streaming service ITVX from 7pm.
The interview with Mr Sunak is the second in the ITV series with election leaders after Mr Brand spoke with Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, for a programme that aired on June 6.
Does the interview clash with the Sky News special?
There will be an overlap between the televised election specials on ITV and Sky News as both the programmes are due to begin at 7pm.
As the ITV interview with Mr Brand was pre-recorded, Mr Sunak is free to take part in The Battle for Number 10 alongside Mr Starmer.
The Sky News programme will see Mr Starmer take to the stage first for a solo in-depth interview with Beth Rigby, the broadcaster’s political editor, lasting 20 minutes before Mr Sunak has his say.
They will travel to Grimsby, Lincolnshire, for the event on Wednesday, June 12 and it will also begin at 7pm.
Why has the interview proved controversial?
Mr Sunak left commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day last Thursday in order to attend the ITV interview, sparking criticism from those who found the move “completely tone deaf”.
The Tory leader left Lord Cameron, his foreign secretary, alongside world leaders such as Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron.
Sir Keir was also present at the event, meeting Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, and said it was “very important” to him that he stayed for the whole day.
In footage released by ITV, Mr Sunak apologised to Mr Brand at the beginning of the interview for the memorial in Normandy “running over”.
Asked about the D-Day ceremony in Normandy during introductory pleasantries, the Prime Minister said: “Yeah it all just ran over…it was incredible, but it just ran over everything, so apologies for keeping you”.
