Sunak begins commemorative torch relay ahead of 80th D-Day anniversary

Rishi Sunak began commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Tuesday 14 May, as he handed a torch to a 99-year-old veteran of the landings.

The torch will now travel to capital cities and key cemetery and memorial sites around the UK before crossing the channel with veterans for official commemorations in June.

Mr Sunak was handed the torch of commemoration by Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) director general Claire Horton, before passing it to Navy seaman D-Day veteran Peter Kent at Horse Guards, London.

The CWGC torch relay is intended to visually symbolise the passing down of the D-Day message through generations with British Army soldiers, Household Division horses, cadets and CWGC volunteers also attending Tuesday’s ceremony.