Rain and red faces: the best of Rishi's election gaffes
PM has suffered string of mishaps on the campaign trail, from a football faux pas to a 'Mickey Mouse moment'

Has Labour "installed a saboteur" in Conservative campaign headquarters? That was the question posed by the London Evening Standard, following a gaffe-strewn opening to Rishi Sunak's general election bid.
Two weeks into the campaign, there has been "no shortage of gaffes and blunders" from the prime minister, said The Independent. Here are a few of Rishi's red-faced moments:
Things can only get wetter
A damp Sunak announces 4 July as the date of the UK's next general election outside 10 Downing Street on 22 May
Eschewing the £2.6m Downing Street press briefing room, Sunak revealed the July election date from a lectern outside No. 10 in the middle of a downpour, as Labour's 1997 election anthem "Things Can Only Get Better" blared from a nearby protester's speaker.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Party leaders want to launch their general election campaigns on a high, but "without so much as a brolly, and drowned out by a megaphone and Labour anthem", the PM had a "torrid time", said Madeline Grant in The Telegraph.
"I'm not going to deny that it was a bit wet," Sunak told LBC. Perhaps the awkward start set a tone for the weeks ahead.
Welsh Euros
The PM was also "left red faced" after an embarrassing football blunder while visiting a brewery in Wales, said The National. Sunak asked the workers if they were "looking forward" to the Euro football tournament.
His question was met initially with an awkward silence, before someone pointed out that Wales had not qualified for the tournament. The moment was widely mocked on social media, where one person commented that "it's day one and he's made about five mistakes".
The exit sign
Sunak suffered another unfortunate moment when he was photographed standing underneath an exit sign – arguably the worst position for a campaigning prime minister.
He is photographed "hundreds of times a day" and "some of them will be slightly less flattering", said the BBC, but the "exit door" is "not where he wants to be heading".
'Sinking ship'
Sunak disembarking from a boat tour while visiting a maritime technology centre at a dockyard in Belfast
The PM made another blunder during a visit to Northern Ireland's Titanic Quarter when he was asked by a reporter whether he was captaining a "sinking ship".
"If you look at what's happened over the past few weeks, you can see our plan is working", Sunak answered, but even the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who was standing next to him, "could be seen struggling to contain his grin", said The Independent.
Councillor session
In a Q&A event at a distribution centre in Derbyshire, Sunak took questions from an audience of seemingly random employees, with footage showing the PM thanking one man for his "important question". It later emerged the question had come from Conservative Leicestershire County councillor Ross Hills, one of two Tory councillors in the audience as alleged "plants" to lob soft questions Sunak's way.
The upside-down flag
"Just minutes" after the party's first election broadcast was released, it was pointed out that it featured the UK flag upside down, prompting derision on social media.
"The Union flag upside down is a distress signal. Sounds about right… You're having a bad one, aren't you?" wrote one wag. But later, Home Secretary James Cleverly, a former army officer, insisted the "distress signal" claim was "complete nonsense".
The Mickey Mouse photo
Sunak's accidental 'Mickey Mouse moment' during a stop-off at the Nifty Lifts headquarters in Milton Keynes
No sooner had Sunak pledged to tackle so-called "Mickey Mouse" university degrees, than he was photographed in front of a machine which appeared to give him the rounded ears of the iconic Disney character.
It was an unfortunate image. "When your party is planning to go after 'Mickey Mouse' degrees", it's "probably best you don't look like the famous animated mascot", said Indy100.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its prey
Speed Read Hawaiian scientists discover a carnivorous caterpillar that decorates its shell with the body parts of dead insects
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Judge blocks key part of Trump's elections overhaul
Speed Read Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's decision temporarily bars federal officials from requiring Americans to prove they are citizens to register to vote
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Why is Crimea a sticking point between Russia and Ukraine?
Today's Big Question Questions over control of the Black Sea peninsula are stymying the peace process
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
Kevin Warsh: the man who could replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair
In the Spotlight Powell's term ends in 2026, and President Donald Trump will likely replace him
By Justin Klawans, The Week US
-
Nayib Bukele: the Salvadoran ally in Trump's deportation machine
In the Spotlight El Salvador's popular strongman rose to power promising to make his country safe
By David Faris
-
Trump tariffs place trucking industry in the crosshairs
IN THE SPOTLIGHT As the White House barrels ahead with its massive tariff project, American truckers are feeling the heat from a global trade war
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
El Salvador's CECOT prison becomes Washington's go-to destination
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Republicans and Democrats alike are clamoring for access to the Trump administration's extrajudicial deportation camp — for very different reasons
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Trump granting military control of federal border lands could circumvent the law
In the Spotlight The move could allow US troops to detain people crossing the border
By Justin Klawans, The Week US
-
America's woes are a foreign adversary's spy recruitment dream
IN THE SPOTLIGHT As federal workers reel from mass layoffs, the United States is becoming ground zero for international adversaries eager to snatch up disgruntled spies-to-be
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Trump's federal return-to-office mandate descends into chaos
In the Spotlight Was the administration unprepared, or was it a tactic to drive employees to quit?
By Theara Coleman, The Week US
-
Jewish communities are wary of Trump's push to punish antisemitism
IN THE SPOTLIGHT While the White House expands its effort to criminalize actions it deems harmful to Jewish Americans, not everyone in those communities are on board with the president's purported assistance.
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US