Tories condemned over defection response reference to Braverman’s mental health

The Conservative Party has been accused of using mental health as a “political football” after initially referring to Suella Braverman’s state of mind in a response to her defection to Reform UK.

The original response put out after the former home secretary’s announcement included the sentence: “The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.”

This was removed from a reissued statement sent a few hours later.

The party said the earlier version was a draft sent out in error about the Fareham and Waterlooville MP.

Brian Dow, deputy chief executive of the Rethink Mental Illness charity, said: “Employers should never disclose any details about the mental health of their employees or former staff.

“Doing so says far more about them than the person they are referring to.

“People living with mental ill-health do not deserve to have their experiences trivialised or used as a political football.”

Conservative peer Lord Jackson had called it a “nasty and unpleasant statement”, in a post on X.

Labour MP Jake Richards wrote on X: “I hope decent Conservatives call this statement out. It is beneath them.”

When

The corrected statement from a Conservative Party spokesman now reads: “It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect.

“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.

“There are some people who are MPs because they care about their communities and want to deliver a better country.

“There are others who do it for their personal ambition. Suella stood for leader of the Conservatives in 2022 and came sixth, behind Kemi and Tom Tugendhat.

“In 2024, she could not even muster enough supporters to get on the ballot. She has now decided to try her luck with Nigel Farage, who said last year he didn’t want her in Reform. They really are doing our ‘Spring cleaning’!

“As always happens with Reform, they unveil defections just when the Labour government is tearing itself to pieces – Rayner, Mandelson, now Burnham.

“Reform are too busy opposing the Conservatives to hold the Labour government to account.

“The Conservative Party is now the only party that believes in smaller government, less welfare and Britain living within its means, and has the team and the experience to get Britain working again.”