LONDON — Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party retracted a contentious statement that referred to the mental health of former Tory cabinet minister Suella Braverman who earlier Monday announced her defection to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Braverman, a former home secretary, became the insurgent right-wing outfit’s eighth MP on Monday when she resigned her Tory membership of 30 years. Braverman will stay on as MP for her Fareham and Waterlooville constituency.

Following her switch to Farage’s poll-topping party, the Conservatives sent a statement to journalists lambasting her record, and making reference to her mental health.

“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,” the spokesperson said.

The backlash came quickly. A Reform spokesperson said: “It’s gutter politics, a sign of what the Conservative Party has become.”

Government minister Mike Tapp described the remarks as “below the standards we expect,” while Labour colleague Josh Fenton-Glynn said it was “horrible.”

“Attacking someone on mental health is wrong,” he wrote on X. “The kind of first draft of an email you do before having a cup of tea and letting your better angels take over.”

A new version of the Conservative statement, which was sent around an hour-and-a-half after the original, pointedly omitted the “mental health” comments, with Conservative officials saying the original “draft” had been sent in “error.” 

It is the latest in a series of Conservative attacks on defectors to Reform.

When Robert Jenrick quit as shadow justice secretary to join Reform, Badenoch shrugged off the departure of one of her most recognizable MPs.

She painted Jenrick as someone who had been working to undermine her party: “So I’m just glad that Nigel Farage is doing my spring cleaning for me. He’s taking away my problems.”

When former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi jumped to Farage’s ship, Conservative officials let it be known that he’d been asking Badenoch for a peerage just weeks before.

Sam Francis contributed reporting.