Angela Rayner’s telling gesture of energy as Penny Mordaunt ‘misplaced her cool’

Angela Rayner stayed “cool and calm” while Penny Mordaunt’s stress levels grew during Friday night’s Election Debate, a body language expert claims.

Darren Stanton, speaking on behalf of OLBG, revealed how the stressed out Ms Mordaunt let slip a telling gesture while being grilled about Rishi Sunak’s “unforgivable” decision to leave yesterday’s D-Day commemorations early.

Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, he said: “Straight out of the traps we had Penny Mordaunt pointing the finger quite aggressively towards Angela Rayner, which doesn’t look good optically. Obviously they were talking about defence – but we had Angela standing quite composed, cool and calm while Penny was on the offensive straight away.

“The Green Party leader, Carla Denyer, lost some credibility because she wasn’t speaking directly to camera or to the audience member who asked the question; she was looking down at her notes quite a lot. That can sometimes show poor preparedness – people tend to think more positively about people who are speaking directly from notes that they’ve memorised, and that helps build rapport and trust. Within the first 30 minutes of the debate she was relying too much on her notes.

“When Penny was put under pressure, how she felt about the Prime Minister leaving Normandy, her blink rate began to double, which means that she’s beginning to have a stress response. Her stress level was increasing, which meant she was finding it more difficult to justify the apology.

“When she was asked how she felt, she reverted to the apology – but when pressed, her blink rate began to double. When people’s blink rate changes, it signals in the unconcious mind that their emotions are beginning to change. It means the stress levels are increasing. Until that moment she was fairly composed, but when she got defiant or frustrated she put her hand on her hips. When people do this, it’s a gesture of trying to make themselves bigger and therefore more authoritative, more important and more powerful.

“Penny is a strong performer, she’s very good at delivery. She knows her numbers and her stats, she rarely looks down at the podium, so she does seem to be the most confident of the panel. A close second was Nigel Farage, who’s also a very confident man.

“During the heated discussion on the economy – during which Angela pointed out that Penny had supported Liz Truss‘ disastrous term as PM – Penny’s finger-jabbing or finger punching became a sign of someone attempting to make themselves appear super-confident. Angela wasn’t reciprocating, which meant she was maintaining her composure, so when she did speak, the audience were receiving her points in a much more powerful way – because she’s clearly not affected by her rival.

“Farage pulled what we in psychology call a micro-expression of utter contempt when SNP’s Stephen Flynn said immigration is “absolutely necessary”. The human face can show happiness, sadness, fear, contempt, surprise and disgust. Contempt is demonstrated by a one-sided smile, and this was obviously Farage’s big bone of contention.

“During the discussion on the cost of living, Mordaunt struggled to build rapport with the audience as she showed no signs of a smile or connection with the people there. Angela may have erred on the side of caution and held back to let the other politicians tie themselves in knots.”