“THE last thing this country needs is three months wasted on a Conservative leadership competition,” Dudley South MP Mike Wood has told the News.

Mr Wood said he would be supporting Prime Minister Theresa May in tonight’s vote to determine whether she should continue to lead the party.

The Tory MP, who has raised concerns about the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal – suggesting he could not vote for it without changes regarding the backstop issue, said: “I’ve been very public about my concerns over the withdrawal agreement but a change of Prime Minister at this would achieve absolutely nothing.

“The last thing the country needs is three months wasted on a Conservative leadership contest when we should be working out how we get the right deal for the people of Dudley and the rest of the country.”

He said he was not expecting to see Mrs May defeated in the vote today, which will underway at 6pm, but he said: “Events can change within the hour.”

Mr Wood, the only Tory MP in the Black Country to support the bid to leave the EU, said he remains confident changes to the Brexit plan can still be renegotiated and he added: “I’m still hopeful we’ll have changes. We’re not expecting a vote until next month.”

He would not, however, be drawn on who he thinks could succeed Mrs May should MPs issue a vote of no confidence in her ability to lead the party.

He said: “There isn’t an obvious person.”