The former home secretary was unveiled as the latest ex-Tory right-winger to defect to Nigel Farage<\/a>\u2019s party on Monday, following her friend and political ally, Robert Jenrick.<\/p>\n But soon after the defection, an initial response issued by the Conservative Party included the sentence: \u201cThe Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella\u2019s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.\u201d<\/p>\n The reference to Ms Braverman\u2019s mental health was decried across the political spectrum and by mental health charities, and forced her former party into a humiliating retraction.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n The former home secretary was unveiled as the latest ex-Tory right-winger to defect to Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform on Monday (PA Wire)<\/p>\n The statement came after a bitter month for the Tories with Mr Jenrick, Ms Braverman and Romford MP Andrew Rosindell all defecting. Another nine Tory MPs are on a defection watchlist.<\/p>\n A tweet supporting Ms Braverman from former Brexit minister Lord Frost also sparked renewed speculation that he will be the latest Boris Johnson ally to join Mr Farage.<\/p>\n But the tone of the Tory attack on Ms Braverman, the MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, was met with an angry response.<\/p>\n Brian Dow, deputy chief executive of the Rethink Mental Illness charity, warned the issue of mental health should not be \u201cused as a political football\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cEmployers should never disclose any details about the mental health of their employees or former staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Labour and Conservative politicians criticised the statement as \u201cnasty and unpleasant\u201d.<\/p>\n Conservative peer Lord Jackson wrote on X: \u201cWhat a nasty and unpleasant statement from @Conservatives. That\u2019s another few thousand votes they\u2019ve lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Labour MP Jake Richards wrote on social media: \u201cI hope decent Conservatives call this statement out. It is beneath them.\u201d<\/p>\n Home Office minister Mike Tapp criticised the statement as \u201cbelow the standards we expect\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no sympathy for Suella Braverman<\/a> when it comes to politics and what she did to our immigration system,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the Tories attacking her mental health is below the standards we expect. British values are strong but decent, firm but fair. Neither the Tories nor Reform sign up to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Hours later, the sentence was removed and a new statement was reissued. The party said the earlier version was a draft sent out in error.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Mr Farage and Ms Braverman speaking during a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, central London, after the former home secretary defected to the party (PA Wire)<\/p>\n The corrected statement from a Conservative Party spokesman now reads: \u201cIt was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect.<\/p>\n The statement adds: \u201cThere are some people who are MPs because they care about their communities and want to deliver a better country.<\/p>\n \u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2024 she could not even muster enough supporters to get on the ballot. She has now decided to try her luck with Nigel Farage<\/a>, who said last year he didn\u2019t want her in Reform. They really are doing our \u2018Spring cleaning\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n After being introduced as the eighth Reform MP at a rally in London, Ms Braverman, who once ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party and was a major supporter of Brexit, said: \u201cToday I am announcing that I am resigning the Conservative whip and my party membership of 30 years. And because I believe with my heart and soul that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform UK.\u201d<\/p>\n She told the crowd that Mr Farage was the only man in UK politics who has been \u201ccourageously consistent\u201d.<\/p>\n Two years ago, when she was home secretary, Ms Farage had described Ms Braverman as \u201cabsolutely pathetic\u201d on immigration and stopping the small boats.<\/p>\n When asked about his previous comments after Ms Braverman\u2019s defection, Mr Farage told reporters on Monday: \u201cUtterly useless as they all were. They all were utterly useless, because they were stuck within the ECHR. So she found herself in this bizarre position\u2026.we were still stuck in the ECHR, which she opposed.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThe government was a failure, but she’s now prepared to put her hands up and say, \u2018we got it wrong\u2019, and that’s the first criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n In a chequered career Ms Braverman was forced to resign as home secretary from Liz Truss\u2019s government and then sacked from the same role by Rishi Sunak.<\/p>\n As well as being a so-called Brexit spartan who voted against all Theresa May\u2019s deals with the EU, she also infamously attacked rough sleepers and described asylum seekers as \u201cinvaders\u201d in a career which saw her on the extreme right of the Conservative Party.<\/p>\n Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said: \u201cNigel Farage is stuffing his party full of the failed Tories responsible for the chaos and decline that held Britain back for 14 years.<\/p>\n \u201cSuella Braverman helped botch Brexit and got sacked as home secretary \u2013 her defection shows Farage is willing to accept the very worst of the Conservative Party and exposes his complete lack of judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans<\/a> website to find details of your nearest branch<\/p>\n If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org<\/a> to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org<\/a> to find a helpline near you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-439145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/412301f11b495d4bf480aa9e2b29287bY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzY5NTE3Njg1-2.83215987.jpg\")
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