Liz Truss was ‘mortified’ after being snubbed by an ITV commentator at Goodwood, a body language expert has said.
ITV pundit Matt Chapman quizzed Hay, but after a quick chat, he moved on to speak to another attendee and failed to speak to Truss.
Body language expert Darren Stanton says on behalf of Spin Genie that Truss was not expecting to be blanked by the interviewer, and she puts on the ‘fakest of smiles’ after realising what was happening.
Stanton adds that Truss shows how ‘mortified’ she is through her body language, as her ‘eyebrows came up, mouth was open, eyes were wide’.
He says the former PM was not ‘angry’ to be avoided, just ‘surprised’ and ‘in disbelief’ as she was ready to answer the same question from the racing pundit.
Speaking on behalf of Spin Genie, Darren Stanton says: “You can almost feel the cogs turning in Liz Truss’ head, thinking, how will I answer this question
“What she does is she adopts what I call an ‘Oscar expression’. I call it this because of the split screen of actors up for the same award at the Oscars.
“At the moment they realise they’ve lost, they put on the fakest of smiles. She’s absolutely mortified, opens her mouth, combination of surprise, disbelief.
“She’s very ditzy anyway, so the eyebrows came up, mouth was open, eyes were wide. There’s no anger there, more surprise and disbelief, and definitely some humiliation at the fact she’d been blanked, she obviously felt she was warranted to be asked the same question, as we saw her poised to answer.
“Hay bent over a bit, made no attempt to move towards her, he didn’t gesture, as reporters normally do, to extend the mic out.”
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