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. or a member of
David Davis's 'wider [campaign] team'. 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 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. 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.
Expenses Scandal During the
United Kingdom Parliamentary Expenses Scandal it was revealed that Ruffley had claimed thousands in expenses for the furnishing of his properties, including £1,674 for a sofa and £2,175 for a television. He also claimed up to £17,000 per year under the Additional Costs Allowance system in order to pay the rent on one property and the mortgage on another. Additionally, he claimed expenses for moving between the two properties, as well as for household cleaning products, including scrubbing brushes and nearly £150 for anti-moth sachets.
Since 2010 He was voted back onto the
Treasury Select Committee in November 2010, replacing
David Rutley. 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 cards in July 2011, saying that the public were not given sufficient warning. In January 2011 Ruffley interrogated bankers appearing before the select committee, including
Barclays'
chief executive Bob Diamond, whom Ruffley asked whether he was "grateful to the British taxpayer" for the estimated £100bn of benefit of the
2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package to the wider banking system. Ruffley has opposed the
Liberal Democrats' plan to give the government's shares in the partly nationalised
Lloyds and
RBS to each of the 46 million people on the
electoral roll, and called instead 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
gross domestic product. He voted against the
Cameron–Clegg coalition government in 2013 on the issue of
British military intervention in the
Syrian civil war. On 24 July 2014, it was reported that Ruffley was under investigation by the Conservatives'
Chief Whip,
Michael Gove, with the possibility that disciplinary measures may be taken against him. This follows his
police caution from the
Metropolitan Police for Ruffley's common assault of his former partner. On 28 July 2014 he announced that he would stand down at the
2015 general election as a result of the "protracted media debate" regarding his future as an MP, because he believed it would not "serve the interests" of the
Conservative Party. In November 2014
Jo Churchill was selected as the Conservative PPC for the constituency ==Personal life==