Liz Truss looked as nervous as someone who had "been physically punched" during her Commons appearance today, a body language expert claims.
The Prime Minister snuck into the chamber and sat behind Penny Mordaunt, who she had tasked with answering Keir Starmer's questions during a fraught session in the House.
Ms Mordaunt had originally said the PM could not be in the Commons because she was "detained on urgent business", only for Ms Truss to later walk in.
The country's leader stayed silent for the 29 minutes she was in the House as Ms Mordaunt received a "verbal pelting" over the Government's "grotesque chaos", body language expert Judi James said.
Ms James added that Ms Truss' facial expression remained "so static it looked unreal".
She told The Mirror: "After an hour of ‘Where’s Wally’- style speculation and direct questions from the opposition, Truss finally appeared in a non-speaking role, bouncing in beaming after delegating her apologies to Penny Mordaunt and sitting next to her new chancellor like a competitor on First Dates.
"The pair went briefly through the body language motions of looking like a bonded pair, laughing and chatting, while Mordaunt continued to receive all the verbal pelting at the dispatch box.
"Truss even threw an oddly coquettish-looking part-frown part-smile at the opposition before suddenly falling into waxwork mode and barely moving or responding for the rest of her visit.
"She sat with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap as though nothing she was watching really concerned her. There were no responses to comments or questions and no signs of gestures of support to Mordaunt.
"Her facial expression was so static it looked unreal. Her lips were closed and twisted slightly into a polite part-smile while her blink rate got faster to the point where it looked as though she was fighting off sleep.
"There were a number of her signature ‘tells’, where her chin will judder from side to side in a micro-gesture of what looks like anxiety, almost as though she has been physically punched.
"But other than that she looked like a visitor from another galaxy, shooting out of the chamber while Hunt was just getting into his stride."
Leader of the Commons Ms Mordaunt had earlier prompted jeers and shouts of "where is she?" when she said: “The PM is detained on urgent business”.
Ms Mordaunt kept stressing there was a "genuine reason" and a "good reason" for Ms Truss not turning up. She said mysteriously: "I can’t disclose the reasons. I have asked if I can."
But it's understood there was no exceptional reason for the PM being absent, other than her being extremely busy.
Labour MP Stephanie Peacock joked that the Prime Minister was "on the way to the palace" - implying she could be resigning.
A Downing Street source said Liz Truss had been in "wall-to-wall meetings" with Cabinet colleagues and officials.
Keir Starmer blasted the "grotesque chaos" of the government adding: “I guess under this Tory government, everybody gets to be Prime Minister for 15 minutes.”
