Rachel Reeves showed ‘tension, anxiety and belligerence’ during key moments of her trip to China, according to a body language expert.
Judi James described the Chancellor as appearing lively and playful, but uncomfortable in her own skin, resorting to touching her hair as a way to calm herself.
Ms Reeves’ speech during meetings was ‘equally tense’ and she took ‘no real control of the words’, the analyst added.
According to a study on her behavior in Beijing, this gave the impression that the Chancellor was more focused on impressing others rather than leading global-level business meetings.
Prior to leaving for China, Ms Reeves faced calls to cancel her trip in the face of a spike in Government borrowing costs.
This has sparked fears she will be unable to meet her debt and spending targets, requiring either more tax rises or deeper cuts later this year.
Despite calls for her to address the market instability by staying home and taking immediate action, the Chancellor chose to carry on, reminiscent of Britain’s debt crisis in 1976.
Critics poured scorn on the £600million investment Ms Reeves secured in Beijing, with the Tories saying the Chancellor had ‘come back with next to nothing’ from her trip.
At meetings on Saturday, Ms Reeves had hailed her trip as a ‘significant milestone’ in Labour’s re-engagement with China.
The agreements reached include deals on financial services, agri-food and cultural exports, along with other areas.
‘There is no sense of any easy relaxation’ – expert
In her analysis of Ms Reeves’ appearances in China, Judi James said: ‘This is a very poor body language performance from Reeves, who manages to project tension, anxiety and belligerence during some of the key moments of this trip to China.
‘There is no sense of any easy relaxation or signals of experience that might suggest status and formidable negotiation skills.
‘She looks coltish and frisky, as though she might bolt at any moment, rushing into shot, tossing her head about and blinking frequently and hard at the camera.
‘She doesn’t look comfortable in her own skin here and despite her very functional and simple styling with her pants suit and the sensible bob, she still appears distracted, especially by her hair, which will imply a lack of forensic focus and active listening.
‘In the group photo she looks unable to keep a calm, steady gaze for long and her eye-stutter blinking and the way her hands twitch slightly suggest nerves.
‘The Chinese handshake is traditionally seen as ‘soft’, with no power-shake-style hard clasping or shaking.
‘But we can see from the shakes Reeves is participating in that the Chinese hosts are performing firm clutches with a thumb clamp and even shaking the hands together with energy.
‘Reeves’ hand looks weak within the clasp and she might have resorted to some subtle upgrade of her own clasp when she felt the strong approach.
‘Good business handshakes involve some on-the-spot adjustments to quietly meet or mirror the other person.
‘We can see Reeves is not using mirroring to create a sense of empathy or rapport when, in one shake, she purses her lips tensely while her host smiles at the camera and then refuses his steering gesture to go first as they walk and tries to gesture the same back to him.
‘In the second shake she seems to challenge their etiquette rule of not performing an ‘absent-minded shake’ by playing with her hair when she still has hold of the host’s hand.
‘Reeves rushes in for this shake rather than looking calm and unhurried and as they shake gets towards the end and they pose for the cameras she tosses her head twice in a nervous-looking ritual before using her free hand to touch her hair while their hands are still in the clasp.
‘This is an auto-contact, self-calming ritual, not a slower power-preen hair touch.
‘She also then moves both hands down to hold the sides of her thighs in another gesture that suggests tension.
‘Reeves’ speech in the meeting chamber looks and sounds equally tense. She sits with both hands on the script with her fingers seeming to run along the lines.
‘She looks as though she is at an audition rather than a global-level business meeting.
‘She takes no real control of the words and the phrase ‘Let’s be honest…’ might not be a good choice of intro for the Chinese market.
‘When her Chinese counterpart makes his speech from across the table her forensic listening style is missing.
‘Again, she looks distracted by her own hair, pulling a strand right back over the top of her head in an exaggerated ritual and then stroking the side of her hair.
‘The projected tension of these self-comfort movements is added to by the way we can see a muscle working away at the side of her jaw.
‘The piece to camera where she answers journo questions sees her looking and sounding defensive and irritated at being questioned.
‘Her robotic delivery mirrors Starmer’s signature style and, despite some verbal fillers, her sustained eye contact and her ‘non-negotiable’ fiscal rules and her ‘pragmatic conversations’ with China, sound unnecessarily stubborn.’
