Body language expert on May and Sturgeon's Brexit meeting

Body language expert on May and Sturgeon's Brexit meeting

NEWS: goo.gl/a3kAcQ



Theresa May flatly dismissed Nicola Sturgeon's incendiary demands for a fresh independence referendum today as the leaders held frost Brexit talks.

After the tense talks broke up, Miss Sturgeon said the meeting was 'business like' but 'cordial'.



While a beaming Miss Sturgeon left by the front exit of the hotel afterwards, Mrs May slipped out by the back door for an immediate return to London.

Just days before Brexit is formally triggered, the PM and the First Minister held a crucial showdown in Glasgow's Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Despite slightly awkward smiles for the sole photographer allowed in for the start of the hour-long meeting, the sparks are thought to have flown in private after a bitter slanging match over recent weeks.

Unusually there was no on-camera handshake - a routine pleasantry at most encounters between dignitaries - and body language analyst Judi James cast an eye over the proceedings for MailOnline.



After Trump's sulky teenager put-down of Angela Merkel in The Oval Office, this polite, smiling and even - at times - heavily mirrored body language performance between May and Sturgeon should have been signaling that these two alpha females had a grudging soft-spot for one another despite their political animosity.

However, frosty best describes it, as - although not quite Bette Davis and Joan Crawford at loggerheads - these tight smiles and vacant stares were certainly reminiscent of Mapp and Lucia at their warring best.



Last time May and Sturgeon met it was all about the handshake.

May performed a lowering ritual to suggest a desire to bond and although Sturgeon appeared to have her in a vice-like grip both women's smiles suggested they were prepared to put any power-play nonsense to one side and get down to some even-handed debate and discussion.

A few weeks down the line though and they look well past the stage of pretending to be chums.

With their chairs turned in towards one another and down the window end of a rather narrow room they were forced into adopting similar poses on their chairs, although intrinsically their subtler signals couldn't have been more different.

A smiling Sturgeon looked tense and rather anxious.

Crossing her leg away from May suggested a desire to make an escape and although she placed one elbow on the arm of the chair closest to the Prime Minister, which is an act of appeasement that suggests she is still keen to listen to the Tory leader.

Her smile ranged from a tiny, tense mouth-pucker with an oddly raised chin that suggested indignation or frustration to a wider but very rigid performed smile that looked frosty and lacking in genuine warmth.

Unlike May's quasi-submissive rituals the first time they met, when she allowed Sturgeon to look very much the host and the person in charge, this time the PM was all about the power-posing, sitting squarely in her seat and splaying to suggest status, with her legs uncrossed and both elbows on the arms of her chair.

While Sturgeon was pursed and crossed May's pose was all about confidence and power.

Her smiles held a hint of genuine, relaxed humour that gave her a sense of parental authority.



While both women looked superficially mirrored which can suggest like-mindedness the underlying signals suggest the opposite.

At one point both women used a hand clasp that involved meshed fingers but whereas May's fingers were held almost straight, showing a lack of tension, Sturgeon's were bent tight, showing the amount of effort she was putting into the 'smile and wave' poses.

The lack of a handshake said it all, really.

The shake is the classic sign of rapport and a desire for co-operation but it seems neither woman was keen to perform the ritual if their heart wasn't in it.

Fortunately there was none of the nonsense poor Angela had to go through with Trump where she found herself asking for a shake while he ignored and rejected her.

May and Sturgeon did no dithering about or sideways glances to suggest a shake might have been on the cards at all, hinting they'd already agreed off-stage to scrap that particular ritual.

Once the cameras pulled back both women dropped the rigid smiles and May's hands appeared to droop.

And then came the frostiest moment of all.

While Sturgeon sat with her pursed smile, and during the kind of moment when you could expect to see the women chatting, May appeared to turn behind Sturgeon and stare out the window almost as though Sturgeon wasn't there, smiling all the time just in case she looked anything other than polite.

The act of ignoring her must have felt even more chilly in their confined space.