Rishi Sunak has broken his silence and vowed to carry on “until the last day of this campaign” as he tried to draw a line under last week’s D-Day row.
Mr Sunak has been accused of going into hiding after he faced damning criticism for leaving the commemoration early.
And cabinet ministers were forced to deny he would quit ahead of polling day on July 4.
But the Prime Minister said he would not stop “fighting for the future of our country”.
And he hit back at Nigel Farage‘s claim that the Tory leader does not understand “our culture”, condemning the remarks as not “good for our politics or indeed our country”.
Mr Sunak has not done a TV interview since he was asked on Friday about 98-year-old D-Day veteran Ken Hay, who said he had let the country down.
“He lets the country down… It’s not the representation of how we’re trying to weld things together to keep the peace,” Mr Hay told Sky News.
Mr Sunak was accused of effectively going into hiding after he avoid questions from reporters on Saturday.
He is back in action campaigning in West Sussex, and a high-profile BBC interview with Nick Robinson is set to be broadcast on Monday evening.
But senior Conservatives were forced to deny claims over the weekend that the PM could quit before polling day over the fiasco.
“People are gonna say what they’re gonna say,” Mr Sunak told reporters on the campaign trail when asked about the rumours. “I am very confident in the actions that we’re putting forward for the British people.”
He added: “There are lots of people who want to write me off, write this off, say this campaign or the election is a foregone conclusion.
“They’ve been saying that, by the way, ever since I’ve got this job, right? Not since this election campaign.”
Mr Sunak added: “The reality is I’m not going to stop going, I’m not going to stop fighting for people’s votes, I’m not going to stop fighting for the future of our country.”
Earlier Chris Philp, a Home Office minister, said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the D-Day exit.
On Friday night former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt condemned it as “completely wrong”.
In a bid to divert attention away from the row, the Tories have set out a plan to recruit 8,000 more police officers.
The £810 million annual cost would be funded by raising visa fees and removing a student discount on the immigration health surcharge.
It comes as the Liberal Democrats launch their full election manifesto, with an offer of a £9.4 billion package for the NHS and social care in England.
The party says this would be paid for by increasing taxes for banks and closing loopholes used by the super-rich.
The plan would include a right to see a GP within seven days, improving access to NHS dental care, and wider availability of mental health services.
The manifesto will also set out plans to overhaul the water industry and tackle sewage pollution, a key theme of the Lib Dem campaign.
Speaking ahead of the manifesto launch, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Our manifesto is a manifesto to save the NHS and social care.
“We want to boost GP numbers, we want to improve cancer survival rates, we want to end the access crisis in terms of people trying to reach their NHS dentists, we want to improve waiting lists for cancer treatment and mental health as well. And we have a bold plan to do that.”
The Conservatives, the Green Party and Labour are also expected to set out their manifestos this week.
Labour’s key policy pledge on Monday is to convert more than 3,300 primary school classrooms in England into nurseries, creating 100,000 childcare places.
The party also plans to provide free breakfast clubs in England’s primary schools, with the aim of saving parents more than £400 a year, and lowering absence rates.
But the party’s messaging has been overshadowed by an attempt to correct Emily Thornberry’s suggestion that adding VAT to private school fees could lead to larger class sizes in the state sector.
The shadow attorney general claimed on Sunday “it would be fine if we have to, in the short term, have larger classes”.
On Monday, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson slapped down this claim, and said it “just wasn’t right”.
Reform UK will set out plans for the economy, with Nigel Farage expected to say tens of billions of pounds could be saved by stopping the Bank of England paying interest to commercial lenders on their quantitative easing reserves.
More follows on this breaking news story….
