Rory Stewart breaks silence on ‘weird’ viral expression at female guest on BBC Newsnight

Former MP and podcast host Rory Stewart has confessed his body language is just “a bit weird” after being filmed staring intensely at a female journalist on Newsnight.

The 53-year-old gained widespread attention when Newsnight presenter Matt Chorley asked Stewart’s fellow panellist, New Statesman political editor Ailbhe Rea, what Westminster could do about the development of AI.

To hear Rea’s answer, Stewart swung his body around in his chair and fixed his gaze at the journalist.

The clip from the BBC programme on September 18 became an internet sensation overnight.

But Mr Stewart has now responded to viewers mocking his intense stare on The Rest is Politics podcast. Speaking to co-host Alastair Campbell Mr Stewart said: “My body language and the way that I move is a bit weird.”

He added that it’s his “physical energy” and compared the viral head turn to Ed Miliband getting snapped eating a bacon sandwich during the 2015 general election campaign.

After the clip went viral the female journalist message Mr Stewart to reassure him that she wasn’t offended by the head turn.

Reading out a message from her on the BBC podcast Mr Stewart said: “Solidarity on becoming the main character on the internet today. I hope it hasn’t bothered you, but I just wanted to reassure you in case it has that I didn’t mind and knew you were just being polite and attentive.”

However, Mr Stewart is certain that nobody in the Newsnight studio notice his unusual body language.

“It’s only when it appeared on television that it suddenly looked unbelievably weird,” he explained.

In another a clip posted to Newsnight’s TikTok accountMr Stewart said he has been abroad since the show had gone out and explained that he had been under the orders of his family to disable social media on his phone.

“I'm just coming back from abroad and I've missed all of this because I was on an Army base and then I've been away,” he said in the video which was filmed in the back of a car.

“And, under strict instructions from my family I have disabled all social media on this phone.”

He added: “I don't know what to say - thank you, and I guess all I can do is this.” He then performed another head swivel, mocking his own intense stare.

In the comments one person compared his viral stare to the comedy character Alan Partridge, another commented that “he is a good sport and a national treasure”, while one said “he is a wonderfully eccentric legend”.

It comes after Mr Chorley told The Guardian he “didn’t notice Rory looking particularly intently at anyone during the course of the programme."

However, he became aware that the moment had cut through the public consciousness as “friends and family who don’t normally watch it” started sending him clips.

He added that he had jokingly told the panellists before going on air: "Anything that can be used to go viral, maybe a punch-up or whatever, a tiff at the table, if you want to do that, that’d be great."

The presenter suggested Mr Stewart would be “used to” the online attention after another clip of him taking his tie off during a Tory leadership debate had gone viral in 2019.

“It’s not the first time that something he’s done has gone wild online. I think he was genuinely probably just intently listening to what Ailbhe had to say. But there was something about the camera angle and his very direct look,” he said.