David Ruffley
Encyclopedia
David Laurie Ruffley is a Conservative Party
politician in the United Kingdom
. He is the Member of Parliament
(MP) for the constituency of Bury St Edmunds
in Suffolk
, which encompasses Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
, having been first elected in 1997
.
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.
, in Greater Manchester
. He went to the Bolton Boys' School
, an independent school in the town. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge
, receiving a BA
in law in 1985. From 1985-91, 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 1996-7, 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 Boys' 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 every election since to 2,503, 9,930 and 12,380 respectively.
'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, along with Michael Fallon
, 'presciently' 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 credit
s 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 [campaign] team'.
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
Radio Suffolk and the East Anglian Daily Times
saw the failure of their programme to get St Edmund
named as the patron saint of England. Ruffley had taken up the cause and helped deliver a large petition to the government in London
. Prime Minister
Tony Blair
rejected the request, but St Edmund was named patron saint of Suffolk.
From July 2007 to 2010, Ruffley was Shadow Minister for Police Reform replacing Nick Herbert
MP. In 2008, he took charge of reducing the safety and health
burden on police officers, and obtained figures showing police spent less than two-thirds of their time on patrol. He said that there was an 'emerging crisis of public confidence' in the Criminal Records Bureau
(CRB), after 700 people were falsely accused of having criminal records in the year to February 2008, and highlighted the risk posed by CRB checks to work experience
. He pledged to end police moonlighting, after it was discovered in January 2009 that 4,300 officers held second jobs. He campaigned against speed cameras being used to 'milk' motorists of £250,000 a day.
.
On the select committee, Ruffley has opposed the Payments Council
's plans to withdraw personal cheques by 2018, saying that it 'scared the pants off Middle England', accusing the Council of 'rank incompetence', and calling for the Council's chairman to resign. He has also criticised the withdrawal of cheque guarantee card
s in July 2011, saying that the public were not given sufficient warning.
Ruffley has stood up to bankers appearing before the select committee, including pursuing Barclays chief executive
Bob Diamond
in January 2011 on whether he was 'grateful to the British taxpayer' for the estimated £100bn of benefit of the bank bailouts to the wider banking system. Ruffley has opposed the Liberal Democrats
' plan to give away the government's shares in Lloyds
and RBS, and called for them to be sold to raise money for a cut in the basic rate of income tax.
In July 2011, Ruffley supported Sajid Javid
's private member's bill
to limit government debt to 40% of GDP.
and the train safely passed over him, inflicting only cuts and bruises. The police treated the incident as "non-suspicious". Ruffley was reported to have been suffering from depression
at the time and was granted sick leave
to recover. He returned to work in October 2010.
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. He is the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for the constituency of Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (UK Parliament constituency)
Bury St Edmunds is a county constituency located in Suffolk and centred on the town of Bury St Edmunds. It elects one Member of Parliament to in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, which encompasses Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
Stowmarket
-See also:* Stowmarket Town F.C.* Stowmarket High School-External links:* * * * *...
, having been first elected in 1997
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
.
A solicitor by profession, Ruffley served as special adviser to Ken Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
(1991–96). He sat on the Treasury Select Committee from 1999 to 2004, on which he was an arch-critic of Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
, before becoming a whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
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 BoltonBolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
. He went to the Bolton Boys' School
Bolton School
Bolton School is an independent day school in Bolton, in the North-West of England. It comprises a co-educational Nursery and Infant School and single sex Junior and Senior Schools . With almost 2,400 pupils it is one of the largest independent day schools in the country.-History:Bolton School...
, an independent school in the town. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...
, receiving a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in law in 1985. From 1985-91, he worked for solicitors Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance LLP is a global law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and a member of the 'Magic Circle' of leading UK law firms. It is one of the ten largest law firms in the world measured by both number of lawyers and revenue...
in London. He was then a special adviser to Ken Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
, first as Secretary of State for Education and Science (1991–92), then as Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
(1992–93), and finally as Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
(1993–96). From 1996-7, 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
St Marylebone School
St Marylebone C of E School is a specialist secondary school for girls in Marylebone, London. It specialises in Performing Arts and Maths & Computing. In the sixth form, boys can also attend....
(1992–94) and Pimlico School (1994–96). He would later be a governor of Bolton Boys' School (1997–99), which he had attended himself.
Ruffley sought selection for parliamentary seats, being beaten to selection in Harrogate and Knaresborough
Harrogate and Knaresborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Harrogate and Knaresborough is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
by Norman Lamont. After Richard Spring was selected to fight West Suffolk
West Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency)
-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:- Notes and references :...
, selection for Spring's former seat of Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (UK Parliament constituency)
Bury St Edmunds is a county constituency located in Suffolk and centred on the town of Bury St Edmunds. It elects one Member of Parliament to in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
with changed boundaries, was won by Ruffley. He won by a majority of 368 in 1997, increasing this at every election since to 2,503, 9,930 and 12,380 respectively.
Backbencher
Ruffley served on William HagueWilliam Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
's campaign team in the 1997 party leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 1997
A leadership election was triggered in the British Conservative Party when John Major resigned on 2 May 1997, following his party's defeat at the 1997 general election .-Announced:...
.
Ruffley was voted onto the powerful Treasury Select Committee in 1999. He remained on the committee until 2004, and, along with Michael Fallon
Michael Fallon
For the American Physician / Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives see Mike FallonMichael Cathel Fallon is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Sevenoaks, and as of September 2010 the deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.-Early life:Michael Fallon...
, 'presciently' criticised then-Chancellor Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
's handling of the economy, dubbing him 'Gambling Gordon' in 2002. He criticised Brown for hiding higher taxes by counting tax credit
Tax credit
A tax credit is a sum deducted from the total amount a taxpayer owes to the state. A tax credit may be granted for various types of taxes, such as an income tax, property tax, or VAT. It may be granted in recognition of taxes already paid, as a subsidy, or to encourage investment or other behaviors...
s as a negative income tax
Negative income tax
In economics, a negative income tax is a progressive income tax system where people earning below a certain amount receive supplemental pay from the government instead of paying taxes to the government. Such a system has been discussed by economists but never fully implemented...
, citing the OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade...
's classification of it as an increase in spending.
In the 2001 leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2001
The 2001 Conservative leadership election was held after the United Kingdom Conservative Party failed to make inroads into the Labour government's lead in the 2001 general election. Party leader William Hague resigned, and a leadership contest was called under new rules Hague had introduced...
, Ruffley initially supported Michael Portillo
Michael Portillo
Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo is a British journalist, broadcaster, and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister...
, 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
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
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
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
or a member of David Davis
David Davis
David Davis may refer to:*David Davis , Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative Council*David Davis , British Conservative Member of Parliament, Conservative leadership candidate in 2001 and 2005*David Davis , head of the BBC's Children's Hour*David Davis ,...
's 'wider [campaign] team'.
Shadow Minister
With Howard as leader, Ruffley became a whipWhip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
on 15 March 2004, after the resignation of David Curry
David Curry
David Maurice Curry is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Skipton and Ripon from 1987 to 2010.-Early life:...
.
In December 2005, he was appointed by David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
as the Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform
Welfare reform
Welfare reform refers to the process of reforming the framework of social security and welfare provisions, but what is considered reform is a matter of opinion. The term was used in the United States to support the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act...
.
In 2006, a group that included BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Radio Suffolk and the East Anglian Daily Times
East Anglian Daily Times
The East Anglian Daily Times is a British local newspaper for Suffolk and Essex, based in Ipswich.It started publication on 13 October 1874, incorporating the Ipswich Express, which had been published since 13 August 1839...
saw the failure of their programme to get St Edmund
Edmund the Martyr
St Edmund the Martyr was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.D'Evelyn, Charlotte, and Mill, Anna J., , 1956. Reprinted 1967...
named as the patron saint of England. Ruffley had taken up the cause and helped deliver a large petition to the government in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
rejected the request, but St Edmund was named patron saint of Suffolk.
From July 2007 to 2010, Ruffley was Shadow Minister for Police Reform replacing Nick Herbert
Nick Herbert
Nicholas Le Quesne "Nick" Herbert is a British Conservative Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs...
MP. In 2008, he took charge of reducing the safety and health
Occupational safety and health
Occupational safety and health is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goal of all occupational safety and health programs is to foster a safe work environment...
burden on police officers, and obtained figures showing police spent less than two-thirds of their time on patrol. He said that there was an 'emerging crisis of public confidence' in the Criminal Records Bureau
Criminal Records Bureau
The Criminal Records Bureau , is an Executive Agency of the Home Office, which provides wider access to criminal record information through its Disclosure service for England and Wales...
(CRB), after 700 people were falsely accused of having criminal records in the year to February 2008, and highlighted the risk posed by CRB checks to work experience
Work experience
Work experience is the experience that a person has been working, or worked in a specific field or occupation.- Volunteer work and internships :...
. He pledged to end police moonlighting, after it was discovered in January 2009 that 4,300 officers held second jobs. He campaigned against speed cameras being used to 'milk' motorists of £250,000 a day.
Treasury Select Committee
He was voted back onto the Treasury Select Committee in November 2010, replacing David RutleyDavid Rutley
David Henry Rutley is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Macclesfield, and was first elected at the 2010 general election....
.
On the select committee, Ruffley has opposed the Payments Council
Payments Council
The Payments Council is an organisation of financial institutions in the United Kingdom that sets strategy for UK payment mechanisms.-History:...
's plans to withdraw personal cheques by 2018, saying that it 'scared the pants off Middle England', accusing the Council of 'rank incompetence', and calling for the Council's chairman to resign. He has also criticised the withdrawal of cheque guarantee card
Cheque guarantee card
A cheque guarantee card is essentially an abbreviated portable letter of credit granted by a bank to a qualified depositor, providing that when he is paying a business by cheque and the retailer writes the card number on the back of the cheque, the cheque is signed in the retailer's presence, and...
s in July 2011, saying that the public were not given sufficient warning.
Ruffley has stood up to bankers appearing before the select committee, including pursuing Barclays chief executive
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Bob Diamond
Robert Diamond
Robert Edward "Bob" Diamond, Jr. is an American banker, currently Group Chief Executive of British bank, Barclays Plc. He is also Chief Executive of Corporate & Investment Banking and Wealth Management, comprising Barclays Capital, Barclays Corporate and Barclays Bank...
in January 2011 on whether he was 'grateful to the British taxpayer' for the estimated £100bn of benefit of the bank bailouts to the wider banking system. Ruffley has opposed the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
' plan to give away the government's shares in Lloyds
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a major British financial institution, formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. As at February 2010, HM Treasury held a 41% shareholding through UK Financial Investments Limited . The Group headquarters is located at 25 Gresham Street in London, with...
and RBS, and called for them to be sold to raise money for a cut in the basic rate of income tax.
In July 2011, Ruffley supported Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid is an English Conservative Party politician. At the 2010 general election he was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for the Bromsgrove constituency....
's private member's bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
to limit government debt to 40% of GDP.
Train incident
On Thursday, 17 June 2010, David Ruffley suffered minor injuries after falling into the path of an oncoming train at Victoria Station, London. He missed the live railThird rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
and the train safely passed over him, inflicting only cuts and bruises. The police treated the incident as "non-suspicious". Ruffley was reported to have been suffering from depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
at the time and was granted sick leave
Sick leave
Sick leave is time off from work that workers can use during periods of temporary illness to stay home and address their health and safety needs without losing pay. Some workplaces offer paid sick time as a matter of workplace policy, and in few jurisdictions it is codified into law...
to recover. He returned to work in October 2010.
External links
- David Ruffley MP official constituency website
- David Ruffley MP Conservative Party profile
- Bury St Edmunds Conservatives