Body language expert analyses Boris Johnson's farewell speech

Boris Johnson jerked his thumb back towards the No10 door as if to say ‘keep it ajar for me’: Body language expert Judi James says butcher-like PM’s ‘punching and chopping’ final speech was peppered with ‘anger’

• Boris Johnson ‘bit his words as he spoke them’, says body language expert
• Judi James says speech at No 10 was full of ‘punching and chopping gestures’ 
• Outgoing prime minister looked ‘like large schoolboy being dropped off at gate’ 

Boris Johnson ‘bit his words as he spoke them’ in a farewell speech that was full of ‘anger’ and ‘punching and chopping gestures’, a body language expert said today.

Judi James said the outgoing Prime Minister looked ‘like a large schoolboy being dropped off at the gate’ as he walked out of 10 Downing Street with wife Carrie.

Mr Johnson pledged his support for successor Liz Truss today as she prepared to take over as prime minister and deliver a plan to address the energy crisis.

But Ms James also told MailOnline that Mr Johnson’s ‘thumb-jerk towards the gleaming black door behind him looked like a hint to keep it ajar for him’.

And she said his ‘finger stabbed down onto the lectern while his other hand chopped away like a butcher cutting meat’ while speaking to the gathered media. 

Body language expert Jud James told MailOnline that Boris Johnson’s ‘thumb-jerk towards the gleaming black door behind him looked like a hint to keep it ajar for him’ during today’s speech

Judi James said Boris Johnson looked ‘like a large schoolboy being dropped off at the gate’ as he walked out of 10 Downing Street with wife Carrie today

Judi James said Boris Johnson ‘bit his words as he spoke them’ in a farewell speech outside 10 Downing Street today that was full of ‘punching and chopping gestures’

Judi James told how Boris Johnson’s ‘finger stabbed down onto the lectern while his other hand chopped away like a butcher cutting meat’ while speaking to the gathered media today

She said his ‘top lip tightened in fury as he began to list his achievements’, including his government’s record on Brexit, supporting Ukraine and Covid-19 vaccines.

Ms James described his remarks as a ‘wartime speech’, and claimed that his body language was ‘the angriest I have seen it’.

Body language expert Judi James

She continued: ‘His non-verbal and verbal signals seemed to ask ‘What the f… have you done?’ as his tone turned bitter.

‘Unsmiling almost throughout, he bit his words as he spoke them and his emphatic head batons reflected his point that his job had ‘unexpectedly turned out to be a relay’.’

Ms James also said that when Boris Johnson first emerged holding his wife’s hand, he ‘looked for all the world like a large schoolboy being dropped off at the gates on the first day of term’.

She continued: ‘But then she was dismissed to stride off towards a distraught-looking Nadine Dorries, leaving Boris to deliver the full, scorching, hairdryer force of his anger and bitterness.’

Ms James said: ‘His finger stabbed down onto the lectern while his other hand chopped away like a butcher cutting meat. At one point he hit the lectern so hard the twin mics wobbled and after that he resorted to an air-punching fist.’

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street today

Boris Johnson addresses the media outside Downing Street before leaving for Balmoral today

She also pointed out that despite him pledging support for Liz Truss, ‘his delivery of her name was curious’ as he paused between the words ‘Liz’ and ‘Truss’.

Ms James said: ‘He stabbed a finger on each word but the pause in the middle implied a subtle lowering of her status, as though he was already forgetting her name.

‘His walk-off with Carrie saw him hugging and kissing his way through the crowd, although it was a crowd of ministers who, before his arrival, had been bouncing on their heels in what looked like a ritual of collective impatience to be done with the farewells and get back on with the job.’

Miss Truss, who will travel to Balmoral to accept the role of prime minister from the Queen later today, is thought to be drawing up plans for a freeze in bills which could cost around £100 billion.

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street today

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures outside 10 Downing Street this morning

Miss Truss won the contest to succeed Mr Johnson as Tory leader yesterday and will address the nation from Downing Street later today as prime minister, although storms forecast for Westminster mean she may have to do it from inside No 10.

A calm morning in Westminster meant Mr Johnson, watched by wife Carrie and supportive MPs including Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, was able to deliver his farewell address from a podium outside the black door of No 10.

The Prime Minister said Vladimir Putin was ‘utterly deluded’ if he thought he could succeed by ‘blackmailing and bullying’ the British public through restricting gas supplies, driving up world prices.

But in a sign of lingering resentment at the manner in which he was forced out, Mr Johnson said ‘the baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race, they changed the rules halfway through, but never mind that now’.

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street today

Boris Johnson says farewell as he makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street in London today

He said his career was now like a booster rocket ‘that has fulfilled its function and I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific’.

Mr Johnson said ‘I will be offering this government nothing but my most fervent support’, calling for Tories to unite behind the new leader at a ‘tough time for the economy’.

‘I say to my fellow Conservatives, it’s time for politics to be over, folks,’ he said.

‘It’s time for us all to get behind Liz Truss and her team, and her programme, and deliver for the people of this country.

‘Because that is what the people of this country want. That’s what they need. And that’s what they deserve.’

He added that if Dilyn the Johnsons’ dog and Larry the No 10 cat ‘can put behind them their occasional difficulties, then so can the Conservative Party’.

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