Boris Johnson’s ‘stern’ expression during address ‘showed clear intention to try to rally troops’

Boris Johnson’s ‘stern’ expression and dramatic hand gestures during his national address ‘showed a very clear intention to try to rally the troops’, a body language expert has claimed.

In a televised speech from Downing Street, the Prime Minister, flanked by a Union Jack, said he was ‘deeply, spiritually reluctant’ to make new ‘impositions, or infringe anyone’s freedom’ after unveiling new measures in Parliament today.

Boris, 56, who is engaged to Carrie Symonds – who gave birth to their son Wilfred in April, appeared to ‘re-energised and revitalised’, according to body language guru Judi James.

She told FEMAIL, Boris was: ‘Re-energised, revitalised and lacking the body language signals of regret and gloom that hung like a cloud during his Commons speech in the afternoon.’

The Prime Minister warned Britons tonight they faced a long hard winter of police-enforced curbs on their freedom to see off coronavirus, saying the alternative was ‘many more families losing loved ones before their time’.

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Commenting on Boris’ body language throughout his address, Judi said: ‘Re-energised, revitalised and lacking the body language signals of regret and gloom that hung like a cloud during his Commons speech in the afternoon, Boris’s gesticulation and the way he held the camera with a gleaming, stern-but-kindly eye expression during his address tonight showed a very clear intention to try to rally the troops for one last thrust to win the war.

‘Appearing at a desk to signal maximum authority for this quasi-wartime address to the nation, his forward-leaning posture and his attacking gestures suggested a desire to lean right into our living rooms to shake us into action. 

‘Apart from some comfortable meshed hands and a self-comfort thumb-rub that hinted at some anxiety behind the electric performance, Boris was purely in fight mode. 

‘His hands balled into fists so tight his knuckles whitened and within moments the fist were punching away or rattling in mid-air or even coming towards our screens on one occasion when, in his desire to rouse us, he looked almost as though he were in 3D.’

She added: ‘It was a short address but his clear objective was to look spirited and re-energised and to motivate the public with the same kind of performance he used to motivate voters for Brexit.

‘As intentional gestures go, his 33 – plus punches told us that Boris was back and leading from the front again. 

‘Ritualised combat rituals like this are often letting off surplus energy, but in Boris’s case they appeared to be used for intrapersonal reasons though, i.e. to motivate and energise himself as much as his audience. 

‘The contrast between his Commons speech was obvious as the expressions of regret and personal pain were gone and in their place were part-smiles and messages of huge hope.’

Boris apologetically took a hammer to Britons’ social lives today as he reintroduced lockdown measures in England to last possibly six months to see off a second wave of coronavirus.

Pubs and other leisure and hospitality businesses like restaurants will face a 10pm curfew from Thursday, and weddings will be allowed only 15 people, rather than 30, at the gatherings from Monday.

People working in retail, those travelling in taxis, and staff and customers in indoor hospitality will also have to wear face coverings – except while seated at a table to eat or drink.

And in a dramatic reversal of the Government’s recent drive to get people back to workplaces, all office workers will be advised to work from home where they can as soon as possible.  

In his televised address, he said it was necessary to reintroduce working from home rules and a swathe of social measures in order to avoid a dramatic surge in deaths, overwhelming the NHS and spark a second, economically devastating total lockdown.

Speaking from Downing Street tonight he warned that ‘iron laws of geometrical progression are shouting at us from the graphs that we risk many more deaths, many more families losing loved ones before their time’.

And he hit out at his critics – including Tory MPs and business leaders who warned of the economic impact of what he is doing, adding: ‘To those who say we don’t need this stuff, and we should leave people to take their own risks, I say these risks are not our own.

‘The tragic reality of having Covid is that your mild cough can be someone else’s death knell.

‘And as for the suggestion that we should simply lock up the elderly and the vulnerable – with all the suffering that would entail – I must tell you that this is just not realistic.

‘Because if you let the virus rip through the rest of the population it would inevitably find its way through to the elderly as well, and in much greater numbers.’

The PM has already warned that the new curbs could last well into 2021, and tonight he warned it could take until then to get mass testing up and running fully and a new vaccine widely available.