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Kate Plummer
Mar 24, 2022
Boris Johnson awkwardly stands alone ahead of Nato family photo
Independent
Boris Johnson was captured looking like someone's tenuous plus-one at a party when he met with Nato leaders in Brussels today.
The UK prime minister was filmed looking around awkwardly with his hands in his pockets while other leaders greeted each other with warm handshakes as the leaders prepared for a photo shoot.
It comes as Johnson appeared to be snubbed by not being invited to another meeting, hosted by the EU institution European Council on the same day as the Nato summit.
While Britain is by all accounts no longer in the EU, US president Joe Biden has been invited and people speculated that by comparing Brexit to the war in Ukraine, Johnson didn't help himself.
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Nevertheless, as clips of Johnson shuffling about, probably wishing he could take out his phone and play with it, circulated on social media, people cringed hard:
Today I am mostly being called Billy No Mates.\n#NATOSummit #NATOpic.twitter.com/TbcJFp0nFT— Parody Boris Johnson (@Parody Boris Johnson) 1648125303
Hands in pockets. Billy no mates in the playground— Gary (@Gary) 1648120478
THE ABSOLUTE F\u00daCKING STATE OF HIM \n\nWorld beating embarrassment https://twitter.com/tradasro/status/1506923395765653510\u00a0\u2026— Lady \u2113\u03bf\u03c5\u2113\u03bf\u03c5 \ud83d\udd77\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\u2764 (@Lady \u2113\u03bf\u03c5\u2113\u03bf\u03c5 \ud83d\udd77\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\u2764) 1648121892
Global Britain in a single shot https://twitter.com/tradasro/status/1506923395765653510\u00a0\u2026— Paul Mason (@Paul Mason) 1648121819
If you insult everyone, lie to everyone, break treaties then this is what happens. #JohnsonOut59 #JohnsonOuthttps://twitter.com/tradasro/status/1506923395765653510\u00a0\u2026— William Baker, #JohnsonOut #RejoinEU #GTTO (@William Baker, #JohnsonOut #RejoinEU #GTTO) 1648121835
This is what happens when the rest of the world takes a hard look at you.https://twitter.com/tradasro/status/1506923395765653510\u00a0\u2026— Neil Drysdale (@Neil Drysdale) 1648121980
With a great leader representing us on the world stage?https://twitter.com/tradasro/status/1506923395765653510?s=20&t=eqkecfbFhdZYhzexTxbHWg\u00a0\u2026— Meg Irving\ud83d\udd77\ufe0f\ud83d\udc99 \u2744\ufe0f \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc07\ud83e\uddf6\ud83e\uddf5\ud83d\udc26\ud83c\udf3c (@Meg Irving\ud83d\udd77\ufe0f\ud83d\udc99 \u2744\ufe0f \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc07\ud83e\uddf6\ud83e\uddf5\ud83d\udc26\ud83c\udf3c) 1648122548
Did Boris Johnson arrive at the NATO summit after spending a night standing in a field, scaring crows?\n\n(Alternative caption: Where's wally?)\n#embarassingpic.twitter.com/2A4zg09Xpb— SimplyGed (@SimplyGed) 1648114662
And if that wasn't awkward enough, the Guardian's Jessica Elgot reports that Johnson "ambled up" to president Biden after the photo was taken, but as they started to chat, French president Emmanuel Macron walked over to them and split them up.
Elgot said the "whole international press room [was] laughing".
Great...
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