Mike Wood is the Conservative MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, having first been elected to parliament for the predecessor Dudley South constituency.

In the 2024 general election for the Kingswinford and South Staffordshire constituency, Wood received 18,199 votes, representing 40.3% of the vote share. The Labour candidate, Sally Benton, received 11,896 votes (26.3%), while the Reform UK candidate, Gary Dale, secured 9,928 votes (22.0%). Wood was duly elected with a majority of 6,303 votes.  

Kingswinford and South Staffordshire is a constituency located across the county border of the West Midlands and Staffordshire. It was created for the 2024 general election following boundary changes.

The seat incorporates parts of the former South Staffordshire constituency (including Wombourne, Codsall, and Perton) previously represented by Conservative MP Gavin Williamson, and parts of the abolished Dudley South constituency (including Kingswinford and Wordsley) previously represented by Mike Wood himself. The predecessor seats were considered Conservative strongholds.

Political Career

Wood currently serves as shadow minister of state for the Cabinet Office (since November 2024) on the Conservative frontbench appointed by Kemi Badenoch.

Wood previously served as shadow business and trade minister from July to November 20204 on the caretaker/interim frontbench constructed by Rishi Sunak after the general election of that year.

Prior to the 2024 general election, which saw the Conservatives ejected from government, Wood held government roles under prime minister Rishi Sunak, first as an assistant government whip from October 2022 to November 2023, and then as a lord commissioner of the Treasury (a senior government whip role) from November 2023 until July 2024.

Before taking on these whip positions, Wood served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) successively to international trade secretary Liam Fox, home secretary Priti Patel and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder.

Wood successfully introduced a private member’s bill shortly after his initial election. His Riot Compensation Bill, which amended the Riot (Damages) Act 1886 to reform compensation processes, received royal assent and became the Riot Compensation Act 2016. The legislation gives victims of criminal damage or loss during a riot the right to compensation and is designed to allow communities to recover from the impact of rioting.

Wood was a member of the House of Commons international trade committee (2021-2023) and the European scrutiny committee (2016-2017).

Wood is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for bus and coach, Cyprus, ethnicity transplantation and transfusion, global education, sepsis and speech and language difficulties.

Wood chairs the Sepsis APPG, having developed Sepsis himself in January 2017.

Wood delivered his maiden speech on 1 June 2015 during a debate on Britain’s place in the world.

In it, he said: “Dudley South is an industrial area. We are proud of our manufacturing heritage and of Dudley’s role as the birthplace of the industrial revolution. We are an outward-looking area. As the workshop of the world, the black country’s sights have never been restricted to our shores or to any political boundaries.”

He added: “Whether Britain remains in the EU or we leave it will rightly be decided by the British people – that referendum is long overdue – but whatever the result, it is vital that more is done to facilitate free trade with countries around the world beyond Europe’s borders.”

Before entering parliament, Wood was elected as a Conservative councillor in May 2014.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Wood supported Sajid Javid’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s July-September 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Boris Johnson, following the mass exodus of more than 60 frontbenchers.

Javid, whose resignation as health secretary had helped spark the government crisis, pledged to reverse the recent national insurance rise. He argued that the party needed to restore its reputation for integrity and economic competence. Javid withdrew from the contest shortly before the nominations deadline, after failing to secure enough support from fellow MPs to reach the required 20-nomination threshold.

Wood went on to support Rishi Sunak’s candidacy. Sunak, the former chancellor, warned against “comforting fairytales” regarding unfunded tax cuts. Although he won every round of the parliamentary ballots, securing 137 votes in the final stage, Sunak was defeated by Liz Truss in the membership vote, finishing with 60,399 votes (42.6%).

Tory leadership 2022 (II): Wood again supported Sunak’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s October 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Liz Truss after just 45 days in office, following the financial and political tailspin triggered by her “mini-budget”.

Unlike the summer contest, this election featured an expedited process requiring each candidate to secure at least 100 nominations from MPs to proceed. Sunak, having emerged as the clear frontrunner, was declared leader of the Conservative Party unopposed on 24 October.

Tory leadership 2019: Wood supported Sajid Javid for the party’s leadership in 2019. The election was triggered by the resignation of Theresa May following her inability to secure a Brexit deal acceptable to the Conservative Party.

Javid, the then-home secretary, successfully reached the final four of the parliamentary stages, but was eliminated in the fourth ballot on 20 June after receiving 34 votes.

Tory leadership 2016: Wood was one of the 34 Conservative MPs who voted for Stephen Crabb in the first ballot of the party’s leadership election in July 2016. The contest was triggered by the resignation of David Cameron following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

Crabb, the work and pensions secretary, was the first candidate to formally declare his candidacy, running on a joint ticket with business secretary Sajid Javid as his intended chancellor. Crabb withdrew from the race after the first ballot and endorsed Theresa May.

Wood also went on to endorse May’s candidacy. May, the then-home secretary, secured a commanding lead in the parliamentary stages, receiving 165 votes in the first ballot and 199 in the second. Following the withdrawal of her final rival, Andrea Leadsom, on 11 July, May was declared leader unopposed and was appointed prime minister two days later.

Factional identity and party tradition

Bright Blue: Wood has been listed as a parliamentary supporter of Bright Blue, an independent centre-right think tank and membership organisation that champions liberal conservatism in the UK. Since its founding in 2014, the organisation has expanded its reach through a new cross-party strategy.

Blue Collar Conservatives: Wood was previously listed as a member of the Blue Collar Conservatives group. This faction within the Conservative party was founded in 2012 by the former cabinet minister Esther McVey, but came to greater prominence following the 2019 general election. The group aimed to “champion working people and develop a conservative agenda to benefit the voters and communities most neglected by Labour”. In October 2022, McVey was succeeded by Lee Anderson as the group’s chair.

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Wood supported Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and therefore agreed with a majority of his constituents, 70.4% of whom also voted to Leave.

Leave Means Leave: Wood was a supporter of Leave Means Leave, a cross-party eurosceptic pressure group established in the aftermath of the 2016 EU referendum. The group, which described itself as “the campaign for a clean Brexit”, set out its opposition to any withdrawal agreement that it believed would keep the UK tied to EU rules and institutions – a position often referred to as a “hard Brexit”.

Assisted dying

On the second reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Assisted Dying Bill) in November 2024, Wood did not record a vote. He voted against at third reading.

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Wood voted against a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Foreign policy and security

Trident renewal (2016): Wood voted in favour of a government motion calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The motion, which was passed by 472 votes to 117, committed the UK to constructing a new fleet of submarines to carry the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Syria airstrikes (2015): Wood voted in favour of a government motion to extend UK airstrikes against Isis from Iraq into Syria in December 2015. The motion, which was passed by 397 votes to 223 after a ten-hour debate in the House of Commons, authorised the RAF to conduct strikes against Isis targets in Syria.

Sanctioned (Russia): In April 2022, Wood was among the group of MPs placed on a sanctions list by the Russian government. The measure barred them from entering Russia and was presented by Moscow as a retaliatory response to the UK’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

Before Politics

Born in March 1976, Wood attended Old Swinford Hospital school in Stourbridge. He studied economics and law at Aberystwyth University. He subsequently completed a bar vocational course at Cardiff University in 1999.  

After university, Wood worked for Alexander Macmillan, the 2nd Earl of Stockton and grandson of the Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan, who was then a Conservative member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England.  

Wood then spent four years working as a policy advisor within the European Parliament in Brussels.

Upon returning to the UK, he worked as a researcher for Conservative MPs Andrew Griffiths and James Morris prior to his own election to parliament.  

Personal Life

Wood lives in Stourbridge with his wife and children.

Trivia

Wood suffered from life-threatening sepsis in 2017. He told parliament in October 2024 that consultants informed his family he had approximately a 10% chance of survival at the time.

He stated: “Within a few hours I was in an induced coma. I remained in a coma for the next 11 days after a septic shock diagnosis.

“The consultants told my family I had about a 10% chance of surviving and that if I were to pull through it would almost certainly be with life-changing effects – amputations, brain damage or other severe effects.

“Fortunately, of course, I was extremely and unbelievably lucky, largely because of the amazing care that I received from the staff at Russells Hall hospital in Dudley.”