Body language expert Judi James has analysed Boris Johnson’s appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions today

This was a bit like turning up at a funeral to find the corpse sitting up joking and sharing a glass of beer.

Boris sprang to his feet in a performance of defiant bravado, looking for all the world as though he was having the best time, cracking self-effacing jokes before hacking into the opposition.

He looked genuinely good-humoured and it was as well that he spent most of his time taking verbal pot-shots at the opposite benches rather than turning to look at the body language of his own party, which definitely did not reflect their leader’s mood.

Their body language ranged from solid glares of anger to a more suppressed air of silent frustration.

Some looked anxious and many looked busy, creeping around whispering and passing notes as though the plotting was going on behind the PM’s back and while he was still on his feet.

For Boris this looked like the best fun he had had in a long time, though.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video

He grinned at his own jokes and laughed out loud at cutting quips from the likes of Ian Blackford.

His good humour made it look as though he was at a party and at times he adopted the pose of an old time comic, leaning heavily on the dispatch box while waving his pen around.

It was a performance presumably aimed at creating cognitive confusion.

When someone looks so boosted and good-humoured it can be hard to trade blows with them, especially when they are happy to laugh at themselves.

Sir Keir Starmer threw a couple of funny punchlines but failed to signal the kind of adult anger that might have been needed to rattle the PM.

Blackford actually looked fond of Boris, which could in itself be a sign that he knows he’s going down.

But there were few if any signals of fondness or open support from Boris’s own benches.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article