Rishi Sunak’s telling gesture of defeat as he ‘poses like a foul Grant Mitchell’

With two days to go until the UK general election, under-pressure Rishi Sunak is attempting to pull out all the stops to make the public forget about 14 years of Tory chaos.

But with Labour still sailing 20 points ahead in the polls, and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party splitting the right-wing vote across the country, it’s little wonder Sunak might be dreaming about the day – not too far in the future – that he can quit the UK for his family’s huge beachfront home in California.

This morning he appeared on BBC Breakfast to rally the few troops who remain loyal to the Tory flag, broadcasting live from a supermarket crisp aisle in Oxfordshire. At least he wasn’t hiding in a fridge.

Here, body language expert Judi James reveals the subconscious tell-tale signs Sunak gave away that betray his true feelings about the election campaign.

“Rishi has one physical feature that can be a curse or a blessing. His eyes are large which, although they might have contributed to his ‘Dishy Rishi’ moniker, means his thoughts and emotions will be there for all to see, as the eyes are the most expressive, honest and revealing part of the human body.

“Rishi’s eyes served him well during the debates, where their relaxed expression and the almost complete lack of blinking made him appear confident and in control, in contrast to Starmer’s startled eye expression and his accelerated blink rate.

“Standing in the crisp aisle of an empty supermarket to be grilled by Sally Nugent though, Rishi’s eyes seemed to reflect a range of negative emotions from tiredness and despair to wounded and upset.

“He began with a bounce onto his toes and a chirpy ‘Thanks for having me’, but whoever stood him with the bread counter in the background without checking he knew the cost of a loaf and how much that price had risen did damage to his brand – unless they assumed he’d be questioned about the pillow-size bags of Salt ‘n Vinegar stacked to his right.

“You could see Rishi bracing himself for the interview, and when the first question focused on his ‘language of defeat’, he was ready with a Grant Mitchell-style plonking of his hands on his hips to suggest muscular defiance. The problem with Rishi’s body language during his responses though is that, like a bad actor, he only changes pose and tone at the start of his answer, when to look authentic he should begin to design and display those responses as the questions are being asked.

“When told that, ‘if the polls are to be believed, Labour will win by a big majority’, those large eyes adopted a hurt, pained expression. There was a huge, awkward swallow from him when he was asked if he would have said that Thatcher’s large majority would have been too much power – which is what he is accusing Labour of potentially receiving.

“Under pressure, Rishi fell back onto swerving the questions and rattling off his election pitch. Asked what he’d done to make people frustrated with him, his large eyes did a dart to the side as though he was keen to make a run for the checkout.

“But it was the quote from polling guru Professor John Curtis about the chances of him winning being like struck twice by lightning that had Rishi’s eyes rolling like those spooked cavalry horses that charged through London again yesterday.

“His eyes rolled then darted to the side three times in what looked like inner panic and a desire to bolt. He tried to self-motivate by pumping his elbows against his sides, but his eyes looked visibly upset as he told the interviewer he’d been ‘up at four this morning’ with his brows puckering, as though hoping that little sick note might get him off PE.”