From power stance to devil fingers, unpicking the body politics of the Conservative leadership debates

Legs wider than John Wayne after a 12-mile gallop, wide enough to encircle Barnier and Juncker and crush them between your thighs like the feeble Eurocrats they are.

This fabled posture – popularised at Tory party conferences passim by the likes of David Cameron and George Osborne – was taken to new extremes last week by Rory Stewart during an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. Perhaps Stewart’s generous new swagger was a way to emphasise his broad, centrist credentials… or was he just easing the chafing from his walking tour of marginal constituencies?

Either way, body language expert Robert Phipps calls it “the most ridiculous bit of body language to come out of politics in 20 years”. However, according to Peter Botting, who has worked with a third of current sitting Conservative MPs to improve their body language, the impetus for striking the power pose is most likely not to be over-confidence, but fear. “You need to tell your body that everything is calm so you don’t hyperventilate and talk in a silly little breathless voice,” he says.

Another contender, Sajid Javid, has been known to strike the pose, and Theresa May is a fan, too – but the master was Cameron. According to Botting, the former prime minister would take things one step further, rolling forward on to the balls of his feet to appear even more alluring to voters. “He also didn’t go to the loo before because he needed that pressure on him,” says Botting.

Talk to the hands

On Sunday night, we were treated to a masterclass. There was Michael Gove with his perma-linked fingers, channelling Mr Burns and every Bond villain since 1953. Rory Stewart preferred one palm splayed in the manner of an officious lollipop lady, while Dominic Raab opted for the Alan Shearer single finger point.

Jeremy Hunt employed a one-handed judo chop; as he told an official delegation to China last July, his wife is Japanese, after all…

A tough field, this. But when it comes to hand gestures, the winner of the first leadership debate by a margin was Sajid Javid for the sheer breadth of his display. Prior to the event, he had debuted an index-knuckle point in his campaign video. According to Phipps, “it rams the point home, but it’s less threatening and aggressive than the finger-point”.

Javid wins extra points for a seamless use, mid-debate, of the “precision grip”: a loose fist where the index finger and thumb come together, a move favoured by the prehensile-challenged US president Donald Trump. “It’s how you hold something if you’re writing or sculpting,” explains Phipps. “What they’re trying to do is make people aware that this point is important. They are saying: ‘I am being precise about this.’”

On the question of precision, The Saj also employed a new move which we can only hope we see much more of during the second TV debate this evening: palms spread far apart, rueful expression. Call it the one that got away. Perhaps the ultimate political gesture for the Brexit era. 

The eyes have it

Enter Dominic Raab, who literally won't blink when it comes to a no deal Brexit or anything else. Former colleagues and frenemies of the erstwhile Brexit secretary have warned of his “tunnel vision” – and on Sunday night viewers were transfixed by his stare.

Raab was particularly stark-eyed when lambasting Michael Gove over his Brexit credentials, leaving viewers concerned as to whether the karate black belt had misunderstood what was meant by the ‘knockout’ stage of the contest.

Javid also merits a mention in dispatches for making it through his entire introductory spiel without a single blink. On the other end of the spectrum was Jeremy Hunt, possibly the blinkiest politician since Ben Swain in The Thick of It. And who says this leadership run-off deprives voters of choice?

Direct to camera 

The technique first deployed in modern politics during the 2010 TV election debate, by former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg – to drastic, poll-upticking effect – has gone rogue.

When Michael Gove, in particular, chose to deliver his speeches straight down the barrel of whatever camera was unfortunate enough to focus on him, it prompted collective shivers in living rooms up and down the land.

Breaking the fourth wall may work for Fleabag, but when Gove is the one making eyes it was deemed “seriously creepy” by television viewers on Twitter. Another stated that the Environment Secretary’s asides made them feel “very uncomfortable”.  

Take your audience with you

Jeremy Hunt, you may have heard, was in business before politics, and he wants everybody in the room to know he understands their everyday concerns. On Sunday night, he did this by moving his head slowly from left to right as he spoke in the manner Robocop might while scanning a room for perps.

Occasionally, the wantaway Foreign Secretary could also be seen spreading his arms wide in the sort of beatific gesture befitting his benevolent campaign. “It’s like you are my audience and I want to bring you in,” explains Phipps. “When the hands come to the chest, you want to gather them up to your way of thinking.”

Boris Johnson, who may actually appear behind his lectern on Tuesday evening rather than lurking at home with a takeaway, is another arch arm-spreader. According to Botting, for most candidates this would make them look “unreliable”, but, he insists: “Boris speaks privately to people like that”.

Rory Stewart is one more to watch in bringing the audience onside against his rivals. At one point on Sunday evening, he prompted cheers by saying: “The problem here is a competition of machismo. Everybody is saying ‘I’m tougher.” Just like Reservoir Dogs, but with six Mr Blues.

To drink or not to drink?

Perhaps the greatest challenge faced by all on Sunday evening, and a conundrum that will no doubt rear its head again tonight, was knowing when to reach for their glass of water. With every studiously slow sip, viewers could practically see those on stage remembering their body coach training and giving themselves extra microseconds to wrack their brains. 

Those natural everymen Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove got it spectacularly wrong by each unwittingly reaching for their glass and drinking at exactly the same time… and looking like a pair of Freemasons delivering some secret code in the process.

Resist the temptation to use your water glass as a distraction, says Botting, and only to reach for a drink if you’re feeling dry. “If you’re doing stuff that your wife and friends would think weird, you’re doing it wrong,” he says. “If you want to help other humans as prime minister, act like you’re part of the human race yourself.”