A Conservative MP has admitted that the Tory Party’s attack on Suella Braverman over her defection to Reform UK was “wrong” after it referenced her mental health.

Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith told GB News that such attacks should never focus on individual characteristics, saying the statement was a mistake before welcoming its retraction.

The former Home Secretary became the fifth sitting Tory MP to switch to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on Monday, following Lee Anderson, Danny Kruger, Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell.

Shortly after her defection, the Conservative Party issued an initial statement that included the line: “The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.”

Mrs Braverman responded: “It is a bit pathetic. As I said, it says more about them than it does me. I’m not really going to dignify it.

“It is, I’m afraid, just more sorry signs of a bitter and desperate party that seems to be in free fall.”

“I think that was wrong. I went into politics after a career in business because of people’s ideas, ideas about how we can make our country great again, how today we can help the myriad of small businesses on our High Street in the face of Labour’s attack on business rates.

“It shouldn’t be about people’s individual characteristics. I think it was wrong. The party withdrew that and said it was a mistake.”

He added: “With the best will in the world, I don’t run Central Office. I’m here to speak up for six and a half million small businesses across the country.

“I’ve said that I thought it was a mistake, and I was pleased that it was retracted.

“Human beings do make mistakes of all kinds. Look, I think the Conservative Party, though it’s had its difficulties in government and in recent years, is back. There’s a seriousness about what we’re trying to do.

“We’re talking about the hard choices, which was one of the reasons why in office, not everything that should have been done was done because people weren’t telling the truth. They weren’t willing to make the trade offs.

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“When we talk about how we would make life better for small businesses, we’re identifying the red tape we’d cut, the welfare that we would reform so that there’s money so they don’t have to have increases in business rates or employment taxes, or all of the other things that are just a headwind for those businesses.”

On the Chancellor’s expected partial U-turn on business rates, Mr Griffith added: “It’s just atrocious. Actually, it’s as bad as the weather.

“On the high streets, businesses are just bleeding out.

“And it’s not just pubs, it’s hotels, it’s hair salons, it’s music venues, it’s pharmacies, Post Offices, the Chancellor has made a really big mistake. I don’t think she understood fully the impact of the revaluation of business rates.

“We Conservatives have called for a quarter of a million of our smallest businesses to be taken out of business rates entirely.

“It’s a really bad cost on the business, they’re dealing with higher wage costs, subdued consumer demand because we were all paying higher energy bills.

“And it’s incredibly tough, and she’s just made it much, much tougher.

“We’re calling for a full U-turn. I think what we’re going to hear today is a sticking plaster, you know, on her way to the airport to fly off to China again, she’s going to toss a packet of band aids out the window when actually people in the casualty ward are bleeding out.”