diff --git a/.flake8 b/.flake8
deleted file mode 100644
index 4f67c422f8..0000000000
--- a/.flake8
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
-[flake8]
-# References:
-#   https://flake8.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/configuration.html
-#   https://flake8.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/error-codes.html
-#   https://pycodestyle.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro.html#error-codes
-
-max-line-length = 80
-max-complexity = 50
-select = C,E,F,W,B,B950
-ignore =
-    # E203: whitespace before ':'
-    E203,
-    # E226: missing whitespace around arithmetic operator
-    E226,
-    # E231: missing whitespace after ',', ';', or ':'
-    E231,
-    # E402: module level imports on one line
-    E402,
-    # E501: line too long
-    E501,
-    # E731: do not assign a lambda expression, use a def
-    E731,
-    # W503: line break before binary operator
-    W503,
-    # W504: line break after binary operator
-    W504,
-exclude =
-    #
-    # ignore the following directories
-    #
-    .eggs,
-    build,
-    docs/src/sphinxext/*,
-    tools/*,
-    benchmarks/*,
-    #
-    # ignore auto-generated files
-    #
-    _ff_cross_refrences.py,
-    std_names.py,
-    um_cf_map.py,
-    #
-    # ignore third-party files
-    #
-    gitwash_dumper.py,
-    #
-    # convenience imports
-    #
-    lib/iris/common/__init__.py
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 70675fb998..2c7c6819a8 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -50,12 +50,6 @@ repos:
         types_or: [asciidoc, python, markdown, rst]
         additional_dependencies: [tomli]
 
--   repo: https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8
-    rev: 7.3.0
-    hooks:
-    -   id: flake8
-        types: [file, python]
-
 -   repo: https://github.com/asottile/blacken-docs
     rev: 1.20.0
     hooks:
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index a8d6c0241e..0ae872dd12 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ recursive-include requirements *.txt
 
 #---------
 # SECTION: root files
-exclude .flake8
 exclude .git-blame-ignore-revs
 exclude .git_archival.txt
 exclude .gitattributes
diff --git a/docs/src/whatsnew/latest.rst b/docs/src/whatsnew/latest.rst
index e0ebbdeff6..ed0dff6197 100644
--- a/docs/src/whatsnew/latest.rst
+++ b/docs/src/whatsnew/latest.rst
@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@ This document explains the changes made to Iris for this release
 #. `@trexfeathers`_ updated benchmarking to source Mule from its new home:
    https://github.com/MetOffice/mule . (:pull:`6879`)
 
+#. `@tkknight`_ removed flake8, we have ruff now instead.  (:pull:`6889`)
 
 .. comment
     Whatsnew author names (@github name) in alphabetical order. Note that,