James Cleverly has said he regrets the “joke” he made about spiking and he should not have made it.

At a No 10 event before Christmas the Home Secretary had joked about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug, just hours after announcing plans to crack down on the issue.

Mr Cleverly has apologised for the comments because they “potentially distracted from the work we were doing to tackle spiking to help predominantly women”.

He added that he remains “absolutely committed to the protection of women and girls”.

While speaking to female guests at the event, Mr Cleverly said that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”, the Sunday Mirror reported.

He also laughed that the secret to a long marriage was ensuring your spouse was “someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there”.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Cleverly said he hopes to be judged on his actions rather than his words following the “awful joke”.

He said: “I made a joke, it was an awful joke and I apologised immediately, but I’m absolutely committed and have been throughout my political career to the protection of women and girls.

“I’m absolutely undeterred from that focus and, you know, the people that work with me know my focus on this and I hope to be judged on my actions rather than my words, but I remain absolutely committed to the protection of women and girls.”

Mr Cleverly met his wife Susie at university and the couple have two children.

Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News, the Home Secretary said his wife “has always been incredibly supportive”, adding: “She wasn’t cross, she was always supportive.”

Mr Cleverly said: “It was a joke that I made and of course you know I regret it and I apologised immediately, and that apology is heartfelt.

“But the point that I’ve made is that as Home Secretary I was the first Home Secretary to put forward legislation to toughen our ability to deal with spiking.

“My first visit as Home Secretary was to an investigation team investigating violence against women and girls, when I was foreign secretary I set a target that 80% of our aid has got to demonstrably have a positive effect for women and girls.

“I shouldn’t have said it and I apologised immediately.”

He added: “I’m sorry because it clearly caused hurt, it’s potentially distracted from the work we were doing to tackle spiking to help predominantly women who are the victims of spiking and I regret that.

“But I’m absolutely determined to continue the work that I’ve been doing for years.”