Article 50: Dudley MP 'risked career suicide backing Brexit'
Mike Wood has admitted he risked committing career suicide to campaign for Britain to leave the EU.
The Dudley South Conservative MP says he took something of a risk in backing Brexit and going against the Government's official position.
But he said his seven years' experience as a policy advisor in the European Parliament convinced him that Britain's future lies away from the bloc.
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"I was a relatively new MP, so opposing the Remain position was probably not the most sensible move," said Mr Wood, who was the only MP in the Black Country to back Brexit in the lead-up to June's referendum.
"I did consider whether I was committing career suicide, but I had made it clear very early on that if I didn't think our renegotiation was in Britain's best interests I would be campaigning for Leave.
"It was understood that I felt deeply about it, even if my decision didn't go down well with everyone in the party."
Mr Wood said his anti-EU stance stems from a stint working in Strasbourg and Brussels as an advisor to the European People's Party.
"There was a clear policy that has continued to gain momentum, which focuses on moving closer to an integrated Europe," he said.
"This has been at the expense of the rest of the world. I consider Britain to have always been a nation with a global outlook and the EU was intent on making trade with countries outside the bloc more difficult. The simple fact is that the EU economy has been static for a decade, while the growth areas are in places like Asia and the Americas."
