Rishi Sunak showed he is ‘a broken man’ and ‘embarrassed’ as he addressed the nation for the final time as Prime Minister, a body language expert has said.
Speaking on behalf of OLBG, Darren Stanton says Sunak’s inner emotions were revealed during his speech, with his lack of animated hand gestures showing he felt full of “sadness and disappointment”.
Stanton says Sunak showed vulnerability when he “kept glancing at his notes” and offered himself a “self-soothing reassurance gesture” by gripping the podium – also avoiding looking at cameras, which was a sign he was “overwhelmed”.
“Rishi looks like a broken man, his posture is down, his voice lacks energy,” Stanton said.
“The power, tonality and the dynamism he usually has isn’t there. He appears very dejected and is taking responsibility for his loss.
“His body language reflects this, his shoulders are down, he’s not animated and is reading from notes, which he doesn’t often do.
“This tells us this has been scripted, it may well have been better coming ad-lib, from the heart. The speech was short and sweet, with no opportunity for questions, and went straight into the vehicle.
“By contrast, a very different Rishi Sunak to what we are used to seeing, he usually comes across a bit antagonistic and very confident in himself, but here, he is broken.
“It’s one of the few times we’ve heard him take personal responsibility in a public setting. He uses the personal pronoun via the phrase ‘I am,’ which shows he is personally taking responsibility. That was heartfelt and genuine, but a rarity from Sunak.”
Watch the speech in full below:
Related: Labour wins fewer votes than it did under Corbyn in 2019
