Boris Johnson resignation speech analysed by body language expert
‘Theresa and Maggie cried… Cameron walked away humming. Boris was somewhere in between’: Body language expert JUDI JAMES reveals PM’s attempt at nonchalance was betrayed by suppressed anger and emotion
Boris Johnson’s resignation speech was somewhere in between the final statements by a tearful Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher and a humming David Cameron, a body language expert told MailOnline today.
Judi James observed the Prime Minister closely as he confirmed in front of 10 Downing Street this afternoon that he had quit as Tory leader after admitting failing to persuade Cabinet colleagues that he could fight on.
She said Mr Johnson ‘appeared choked with emotion when he thanked the British public before walking off hunched, with one hand trying to signal nonchalance by attempting to climb into his trouser pocket’.
But Ms James added that the ‘key emotion’ from the outgoing Prime Minister ‘looked like suppressed anger and even bitterness’, adding that his words came with a ‘head baton gesture of mimed attack’.
Read the expert’s full thoughts below on another dramatic day in politics after Mr Minister said it was ‘eccentric’ to change governments at this stage but ‘I regret not to have been successful in those arguments’.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street this afternoon
Prime Minister Theresa May (left) cries during her resignation statement outside 10 Downing Street on May 24, 2019; and Margaret Thatcher (right) becomes emotional while she leaves Downing Street in November 1990 as she resigns
Prime Minister David Cameron famously hummed after saying he would resign. He is pictured at No.10 on June 24, 2016
‘Somewhere between Thatcher, May and Cameron’
Boris Johnson ‘appeared choked with emotion’ during his resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street, according to Judi James.
The body language expert also compared it to those from Margaret Thatcher in 1990, David Cameron in 2006 and Theresa May in 2009 – saying it was ‘somewhere between’ these.
Ms James told MailOnline today: ‘Thatcher and May resigned in tears and Cameron walked away humming.
‘Boris’s resignation speech ended somewhere between the two as he appeared choked with emotion when he thanked the British public before walking off hunched, with one hand trying to signal nonchalance by attempting to climb into his trouser pocket.’
During the speech, Mr Johnson said from a lectern: ‘In politics, no one is remotely indispensable.’
He added: ‘I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world, but them’s the breaks.’
Mr Johnson intends to remain in No 10 until his successor is elected, but he faces resistance to that plan from within his own party and the Opposition.
He has already appointed new Cabinet ministers to replace MPs who quit as part of the mass ministerial exodus in protest at his leadership.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party at Downing Street today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson enters 10 Downing Street after reading a statement in London this afternoon
: Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves after making a statement in front of 10 Downing Street in London this afternoon
Carrie Johnson and Nadine Dorries listen as Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement at Downing Street today
‘Suppressed anger and even bitterness’
Ms James said that the ‘key emotion from Boris looked like suppressed anger and even bitterness’, adding: ”Comedy Boris’ had gone and in his place stood a man who plainly thought recent events were stupid in the extreme.’
The Prime Minister said it was ‘eccentric’ to change governments at this stage but ‘I regret not to have been successful in those arguments’.
A new Tory leader will now be elected who will replace Mr Johnson in No 10.
And Ms James told MailOnline of Mr Johnson: ‘His euphemism was ‘eccentric’ but his words came with a head baton gesture of mimed attack that increased until it occurred on every other words.
‘Referring to the ‘millions’ of people who had voted him in, he bit and snapped at his words or sucked his lips in to suggest resentment.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives to make a statement in front of 10 Downing Street in London this afternoon
Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement at Downing Street in London this afternoon
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement in front of 10 Downing Street in London today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street today
People listen as Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement at Downing Street in London today
‘Gesture of almost military defiance’
During his speech, Mr Johnson spoke about his achievements – finishing the list with ‘leading the West in standing up to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s aggression in Ukraine’.
And Ms James said of this: ‘When he spoke of ‘standing up to Putin’ he looked up in a gesture of almost military defiance, with a lip clamp hinting at that Churchill, wartime spirit.’
She continued: ‘The rueful smile returned when he spoke about the ‘Herd instinct’ of Westminster that had got him out of office.’
In a sign of the resentment Mr Johnson feels about being forced from office, less than three years after a landslide election win, the Prime Minister said: ‘In the last few days, I tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we’re actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in mid-term after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally.
‘I regret not to have been successful in those arguments and of course it’s painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself.
‘But as we’ve seen, at Westminster the herd instinct is powerful, when the herd moves, it moves.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement at Downing Street in London this afternoon
Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads a statement outside 10 Downing Street as Carrie Johnson watches on today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves after making a statement at Downing Street in London today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads a statement outside 10 Downing Street in London this afternoon
‘Struggling with his emotions’
Ms James said that the longer pauses towards the end of Mr Johnson’s speech were a ‘hint he might have been struggling with his emotions’.
She said this was ‘especially as he had Carrie cradling her baby within his sights, but a bigger clue of the shock to his system was a physiological response’.
Ms James continued: ‘As he spoke his cheeks appeared to get paler and mottled, suggesting the shock might have been slowly but gradually setting in for a man who clearly felt he was robbed of power by an eccentric herd.’
During the statement which was watched by staff, supportive MPs and his wife Carrie Johnson carrying their child Romy, the Prime Minister said: ‘It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister.
‘And I’ve agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week. And I’ve today appointed a Cabinet to serve, as I will, until a new leader is in place.’
The timetable for the leadership contest is expected to result in a successor being in place for the party’s conference in October – with Mr Johnson intending to stay in No 10 until the process is complete.
rime Minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party in Downing Street today
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries speaks to Carrie Johnson and her baby Romy outside 10 Downing Street today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson reads a statement outside 10 Downing Street in London this afternoon
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street today
Orime Minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street in Westminster this afternoon
Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a statement at Downing Street in London this afternoon
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