A SUFFOLK MP who apparently tried to commit suicide last month is said to be recovering well in a London clinic.

Messages of support and best wishes have been flooding in to the office of Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley ever since the incident was first publicised less than two weeks ago.

Mr Ruffley, said to have been suffering from depression since Christmas, was lucky to survive as he threw himself off a platform at London’s Victoria station in front of the Gatwick Express.

Victoria Tuck, Mr Ruffley’s political adviser at the House of Commons, said: “David continues to make good progress and I am confident he will make a full recovery and return to his parliamentary and constituency duties.”

Mr Ruffley, 48, has been Tory MP for Bury since 1997 and was appointed by David Cameron to be Shadow police minister in the opposition Home Office team. However, he did not progress to ministerial rank after the election, which is said to have added to Mr Ruffley’s anxiety.

During his absence from the Commons, Mr Ruffley’s constituency is being nursed by neighbouring MPs Dan Poulter (Suffolk Central & Ipswich North) and Matt Hancock (Suffolk West), and they will take over any new or outstanding case work.