He was the party leader of the now defunct Reformed Political League (GPV), which later merged into the Christian Union (CU), from 1981 to 2001.

After finishing high school in 1956 Schutte started working as a civil servant for the municipality of Giessenburg.

From 1974 until 1978 Schutte became a member of the Provincial Council of Utrecht for the Reformed Political League.

In 1989 the party did get a second seat in Parliament and until his resignation in 2001 he worked together with Eimert van Middelkoop.

He also investigated fraud of a number of Dutch institutions of higher education and was a member of the committee which was involved in preparing the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.