Body language expert Judi James has offered a fascinating insight into the gestures of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, and the issues they need to address to convince people that they should be the next prime minister.
He said Mr Sunak is “smart, cunning, always using Tony Blair’s gesturing, we have the thumb of power all the time”, but that this seems better next to Boris Johnson.
“Separately, it doesn’t work as effectively,” he said, before exposing a number of issues the former chancellor faces.
Image: Mr. Sunak uses gestures similar to Tony Blair, while Ms. Truss can be “quite fragile.” Image: Jonathan Hordle / ITV
“He has a huge disadvantage as a politician, which are big, expressive eyes. And I think in the other debates, you could see those moments when one point grief. You could see when he seemed upset. So a great explanation with Rishi will come with that.
“You also forget in the end that you have to keep smiling. You can actually see how the expression changes. And be careful with too much thumb of power.
“You have to make sure it sounds a little paternalistic to the public.”
Ms. Truss has problems of her own if she wants to run for prime minister, the body language expert said.
“It’s usually what I’d say incongruous. It wants to sound and look harsh,” Ms James said, before adding that the accelerated blinking could distract the foreign minister.
Mrs. James sees attempts to “channel Thatcher,” but it’s not always convincing.
“She looks and sounds, below the hardness, quite brittle. Her body language and her vocal tone have a kind of fragility. And I think it would be great for her to lower it a level. Lose some of the fragility and could be much more effective. “
Ms. James also analyzed Boris Johnson’s latest PMQs yesterday, and while we’ll talk about her thoughts on the outgoing prime minister, it’s worth mentioning her vision of Nadine Dorries first.
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Johnson’s loyalist was a “pure romantic heroine,” as her boss said goodbye Wednesday with a “hand up to her neck.”
“It was a real violin moment going on there as far as she was concerned.”
Image: Nadine Dorries (right) was a “pure romantic heroine” as she left her head
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0:58 Boris Johnson thanks everyone in the House of Commons, including his “honorable friend up front.”
For Mr. Johnson, this was “the most painful moment of farewell for Boris … I saw signs of emotion under the boast.”
These include:
- Strongly supported on the shipping box
- “Self-comfort, self-warming”
- “He kept putting his shirt in the back of his pants, which he usually does. But that was pretty much an excessive ritual.”
- “Gesture of the fist in the heart … too exaggerated”
Image: Mr. Johnson showed “signs of emotion under the braggart” Image: Boris Johnson comes out applauding during “the most painful moment of farewell”
Mrs. James concluded, “We can see the moment when Tom Brown’s school days turned into goodbye, Mr. Chips. And he seems baffled. I have to say he looked really upset at that starting point.”