Giorgia Meloni appeared to ask Rishi Sunak the only diplomatic question she possibly could when the two leaders met today at the start of the G7 summit.
As they greeted each other with an embrace in front of the cameras, the Italian PM leaned towards her beleaguered British counterpart and appeared to say: “Are you OK?”
A seemingly innocent question, but accompanied with quite the worried expression.
It’s not clear how Sunak answered – Meloni just smiled in response and leant away from him as he continued to grip her hands tightly, while the conversation seemed to move onto casual niceities.
Watch their strange encounter here:
This exchange came hours after the prime minister faced a brutal grilling from both Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby and a live audience.
He was even booed by the crowd when he blamed industrial action for long NHS waiting lists – despite pledging to bring them down himself at the start of 2023.
Viewers also decided that Keir Starmer outperformed the PM last night, with almost two-thirds of the public thinking Sunak had not come across as well, according to YouGov.
But, the debate was just the latest catastrophe of the last three weeks of Sunak’s disastrous campaign.
From calling a snap election while standing in the pouring rain and facing awkward encounters with furious members of the public to leaving D-Day commemorations early only to be ridiculed for saying he had to go without Sky TV growing up, Sunak has lurched from PR crisis to PR crisis.
Meloni, on the other hand, has had an excellent week.
Her far-right party, the Brothers of Italy, experience a stomping victory in the European parliament elections, making her the only Western European leader to be strengthened by the controversial vote.