re = /(?:(?<tag>(?<!\/).)|(?:\/.))(?: href="(?<url>.+?)")?>(?<text>.+?)</m
str = '<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/23/contents">UK Bribery Act</a> (“the Act”) received Royal Assent in April 2010 and came into force in July 2011. It was designed to modernise and simplify the UK’s anti-corruption legislation and to more effectively address requirements imposed under the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/ConvCombatBribery_ENG.pdf">OECD anti-bribery Convention</a>. The Act outlined four prime offences, including the introduction of a new corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery. And the <b>rest is history</b> so is the ending.</p>'
subst = ''
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html