The Conservative Party has retracted an “early draft” statement swiping at Suella Braverman’s mental health after her bombshell defection to Reform UK.

Conservative Party Headquarters (CCHQ) issued a punchy response to Mrs Braverman’s unveiling as Reform’s newest MP, saying “it was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect.

“The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.

“She says she feels that she has ‘come home’, which will come as a surprise to the people who chose not to elect a Reform MP in her constituency in 2024.”

The response attracted backlash from across the political spectrum, with many claiming it was in poor taste and not befitting of Britain’s oldest political party.

A new statement has now been issued, along with an apology for sending out the previous version “in error”.

“It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect”, the reissued statement reads.

“She says she feels that she has ‘come home’, which will come as a surprise to the people who chose not to elect a Reform MP in her constituency in 2024.”

Newly-defected Reform MP Robert Jenrick told GB News the Tories’ response was “absolutely disgusting”.

He said: “Attempting to besmirch Suella Braverman was absolutely appalling. They’re obviously lashing out. They’re very angry that conservatives are choosing to leave and go to Reform, and they’re not engaging with the issues.

“The same happened to me, where the world and his wife piled in, attacking me, throwing insults left, right and centre, but not confronting the actual argument that I was making when I said Britain is broken and the Conservative Party helped to break it. They won’t win that argument. They know they won’t. And so they’re just going for personal insults.

“It’s sad, but that’s the way it is. People who really want to fix this country have got to rally behind Reform.”

Lord Jackson, a Tory peer, wrote on X that the party had lost “another few thousand votes” by issuing the “nasty and unpleasant statement”.

Josh Fenton-Glynn, a Labour MP, said the statement was “horrible” adding that “attacking someone on mental health is wrong”.

The former Home Secretary under the Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak Governments announced her defection live on stage beside Nigel Farage at an event launching Veterans for Reform.

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She told attendees of the event: “I resigned the Conservative whip and my party membership, my party membership of 30 years. It’s gone. It’s over today.”

The Fareham & Waterlooville MP thanked her former party for their “vast contributions” to British society before issuing a swipe at her former colleagues, saying: “I’m calling time on Tory betrayal. I’m calling time on Tory lies. I’m calling time on a party that keeps making promises with zero intention of keeping them.

“Britain is indeed broken. She is suffering. She is not well, immigration is out of control, our public services are on their knees, people don’t feel safe, our youngsters are leaving the country for better futures elsewhere.

“We can’t even defend ourselves, and our nation stands weak and humiliated on the world stage. So we stand at a crossroads.

“We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender or we can fix our country, reclaim our power, rediscover our strength.”

She became the latest Tory MP to cross the floor, the fifth since Lee Anderson sparked the trend ahead of the 2024 General Election.

Danny Kruger switched to Reform UK shortly before the Tory Party Conference in September.

Ex-Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick and former Shadow Foreign Minister Andrew Rosindell also joined Reform UK earlier this year.