‘Wounded’ Liz Truss feigned a ‘smile to mask her true feelings’: ‘Drained’ Tory leader delivered resignation speech with ‘bizarre bravado’ despite becoming shortest-serving PM in history, body language expert claims
- Liz Truss today delivered one of the most ‘bizarre’ resignation speeches in political history, expert claims
- ‘Dejected’ PM was ’emotionless’ and ‘delivered speech with a bizarre bravado to mask her feelings’
- Judi James told MailOnline she believed Miss Truss looked ‘drained, pallid, as though she hadn’t slept’
- Miss Truss is set to become the shortest serving Prime Minister in history after a chaotic 44 days in office
Liz Truss today delivered one of the most ‘bizarre’ resignation speeches in British political history as the ‘drained’ and ‘pallid’ Prime Minister feigned a ‘sickly smile’ to ‘mask’ her true emotions after weeks of public fury, a body language expert has told MailOnline.
Miss Truss is set to become the shortest serving Prime Minister in history after a chaotic 44 days in office during which she lost the confidence of Tory MPs and the public, battled and lost an open revolt from Conservatives demanding her departure and oversaw economic turbulence.
Speaking from a lectern in Downing Street, she said she had told the King she was resigning as the leader of the Conservative Party as she recognised she ‘cannot deliver the mandate’ which Tory members gave her little over six weeks ago.
But a body language expert today said that ‘dejected’ Miss Truss was behaving like a ‘wounded animal’, remarking that her resignation speech was ’emotionless’ and ‘delivered with a bizarre bravado’ designed to ‘mask’ her true feelings.
Judi James told MailOnline that she believed the Prime Minister looked ‘drained, pallid, probably as though she hadn’t slept last night’ – while her true-blue accountant husband Hugh O’Leary looked rigid and ‘primed to run up and catch her if she collapsed’ as he stood behind her.
‘It was probably the shortest resignation speech I’ve ever seen from a prime minister, and delivered with a bizarre bravado in her body language,’ Ms James said.
‘So she did that bouncy walk through the door to the lectern that she has done a lot in the Commons and she delivered the whole speech with a part smile, it was a sickly smile, but she obviously decided to style it out and look relatively upbeat and happy, which made it all the more bizarre really.
‘There was none of the emotion, I can’t remember how many I’ve watched now but regardless of political opinion it’s always been quite a choking experience to watch them.
Prime Minister Liz Truss, with her husband Hugh O’Leary stood to the side
Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers her resignation speech
Prime Minister Liz Truss walking back inside No10 with her husband Hugh O’Leary
‘I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected’: Read Liz Truss’s resignation statement in full
‘I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability.
‘Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills.
‘Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our whole continent. And our country has been held back for too long by low economic growth.
‘I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this – we delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance.
‘And we set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.
‘I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.
‘I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.
‘This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We have agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week.
‘This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.
‘I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen. Thank you.’
‘Theresa May, the way her voice cracked when she said about her country… but this, she tried to deliver it without any emotion apart from a kind of smile as though she’d done something really good. She looked drained, pallid, probably as though she hadn’t slept last night.
‘Even though she was quite rounded as she was speaking, the smile got became larger when she tried to go through her record in office. Normally PMs like Boris, they’ll give you a long list of all the things they’ve achieved but with her it was two things really, but she still had a stab at it.
‘It was masking. You could probably tell from the body language of her husband, he popped out and stood behind her to one side, his arms were rigid a bit like a penguin they were pulled away from his sides. Almost as though he was primed to run up and catch her if she collapsed or something. You could see the strain a lot more accurately from his body language than hers.’
She added: ‘From all we could see really were her shoulders and they looked very dejected, low and lacking in energy.
‘Yesterday, when she was in parliament and she was really on the attack her shoulders were splayed for her but they had really sunk today, there was an air of, her body was suggesting complete helplessness and the only mask she could put on was that sickly smile.
‘At end she seemed to laugh at the people that were watching her as though she was sharing a joke with everyone which was more bizarre. It was as though she wanted to laugh with us rather than being laughed at, as if she was sharing a bizarre imaginary joke.’
Miss Truss held talks with the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives Sir Graham Brady and agreed to a fresh leadership election ‘to be completed within the next week’.
‘This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security,’ she added, as she was accompanied by husband Hugh O’Leary.
‘I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded a general election ‘now’ so that the nation can have ‘a chance at a fresh start’.
Without a general election, the Conservatives will be on their third prime minister on the mandate won by Boris Johnson in December 2019.
Sir Keir said: ‘The Conservative Party has shown it no longer has a mandate to govern. The British public deserve a proper say on the country’s future. They must have the chance to compare the Tories’ chaos with Labour’s plans to sort out their mess, grow the economy for working people and rebuild the country for a fairer, greener future.
‘We must have a chance at a fresh start. We need a general election – now.’
Miss Truss’s resignation came just a little over 24 hours after she told MPs she was ‘a fighter, not a quitter’.
But her odds of survival were slashed after chaotic scenes in the Commons followed the resignation of Suella Braverman as home secretary.
Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers her resignation speech at Downing Street
Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street
Miss Truss walks into Number 10 Downing Street with her husband
The number of Tory MPs publicly demanding Miss Truss’s resignation doubled before lunch was over on Thursday, taking the total to 15, but a far greater number were privately agitating for her exit.
The mechanism of how the next leader – and Prime Minister – will be chosen was unclear.
Allies of Jeremy Hunt, the new Chancellor brought in to shore up the economy and Ms Truss’s premiership after chaos on the financial markets, said he would not be standing.
The pound lifted on the resignation announcement following another volatile 24 hours for the currency amid political turmoil.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘We don’t need another Conservative Prime Minister lurching from crisis to crisis. We need a General Election now and the Conservatives out of power.’
Miss Truss had summoned Sir Graham to Downing Street for a hastily-arranged meeting this morning, with sources saying she was ‘taking the temperature’ of the Tory party.
What Sir Graham told her was unclear, but she was left realising her time was up. ‘The statement was the result’ of their conversations, a source confirmed.
Miss Truss’s 44 days in office falls months behind the next shortest premiership of Tory statesman George Canning, who spent 118 full days as PM in 1827 before dying in office.
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