SUFFOLK MP David Ruffley thanked his constituents for their support yesterday as he returned to Westminster after falling under a train.

SUFFOLK MP David Ruffley thanked his constituents for their support yesterday as he returned to Westminster after falling under a train.

Speaking for the first time since the incident, Mr Ruffley, MP for Bury St Edmunds, released a heartfelt statement ahead of his return to work in Parliament yesterday.

“I have been strengthened hugely by the support I have received over the summer from my constituents,” he said.

“I am pleased to say that I have had a return to full health and I am delighted to resume my constituency and Parliamentary duties in the House of Commons this week.”

Mr Ruffley has been off work since June when he fell under a train travelling at low speed in a London railway station in an apparent suicide bid.

The MP, who has represented Bury for the past 13 years, was said to have been suffering from depression since Christmas and was lucky to survive as he threw himself off a platform at London’s Victoria station in front of the Gatwick Express.

But thanks to support from friends, colleagues and constituents, Mr Ruffley made a full return to work at Westminster yesterday.

Dr Daniel Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, who has been covering some of Mr Ruffley’s duties during his absence, said he was delighted his colleague had returned.

“David has been missed and it will be great to have him back,” he said. “He has had a tough time of late but he seems much better and enthusiastic and raring to go.

“It’s not nice when someone hasn’t been well, for whatever reason, so it is great he’s back to full health.”

Messages of support came pouring into Mr Ruffley’s office as news of the MP’s troubles came to light in the early summer.

But having received treatment in a London clinic, the MP made one of his first public appearances at the opening of the new Apex public venue in Bury on Thursday.

Joanna Spicer, Suffolk county councillor for Blackbourn, said: “It was very clear to me, seeing him at the opening of the Apex, how much people are fond of him and respect David as an MP.

“We are all here to help him and want to give him as much support as possible.”