David Ruffley

David Laurie Ruffley (born 18 April 1962, Bolton) is a former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, which encompasses Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, having first taken his seat at the 1997 general election.

A solicitor by profession, Ruffley served as special adviser to Ken Clarke (1991–96). He sat on the Treasury Select Committee from 1999 to 2004, on which he was an arch-critic of Gordon Brown, before becoming a whip in 2004. Ruffley served as Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform from 2005 to 2007 and Shadow Minister for Police Reform from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, he was unanimously re-elected to the Treasury Select Committee.

Early life

Ruffley was born in Bolton, Lancashire. He went to the Bolton School (Boys' Division), an independent school in the town. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, receiving a BA in law in 1985. From 1985 to 1991, he worked for solicitors Clifford Chance in London. He was then a special adviser to Ken Clarke, first as Secretary of State for Education and Science (1991–92), then as Home Secretary (1992–93), and finally as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1993–96). From 1996 to 1997, he was an economic consultant to the Conservative Party and Vice President of the Small Business Bureau.

During this time, he was an adviser to the Grant Maintained Schools Foundation (1993–96), as well as governor of St Marylebone School (1992–94) and Pimlico School (1994–96). He would later be a governor of Bolton School (1997–99), which he had attended himself.

Ruffley sought selection for parliamentary seats, being beaten to selection in Harrogate and Knaresborough by Norman Lamont. After Richard Spring was selected to fight West Suffolk, selection for Spring's former seat of Bury St Edmunds with changed boundaries, was won by Ruffley. He won by a majority of 368 in 1997, increasing this at subsequent elections to 2,503, 9,930 and 12,380. In December 2013 he was reselected as the Bury St Edmunds Conservative parliamentary candidate for the 2015 election.

Parliamentary career

Backbencher

Ruffley served on William Hague's campaign team in the 1997 party leadership election.

Ruffley was voted onto the powerful Treasury Select Committee in 1999. He remained on the committee until 2004, and criticised then-Chancellor Gordon Brown's handling of the economy, dubbing him 'Gambling Gordon' in 2002. He criticised Brown for hiding higher taxes by counting tax credits as a negative income tax, citing the OECD's classification of it as an increase in spending.

In the 2001 leadership election, Ruffley initially supported Michael Portillo, and publicly declared support for his former boss Ken Clarke after Portillo was knocked out in the final MPs' ballot. He voted against Iain Duncan Smith in 2003. In the leadership election that followed the vote of no confidence in Duncan Smith, Ruffley was variously described as being a 'likely supporter' of Michael Howard or a member of David Davis's 'wider ampaignteam'.

On his return to the backbenches, Ruffley resumed an active role in representing his constituents. He voted against equal marriage for same sex couples

Shadow Minister

With Howard as leader, Ruffley became a whip on 15 March 2004, after the resignation of David Curry.

In December 2005, he was appointed by David Cameron as the Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform.

In 2006, a group that included BBC
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