 He was selected by the Conservatives as their parliamentary candidate when the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for the Isle of Wight, Sir Peter Macdonald, stood down at the 1959 general election.Woodnutt held the seat for the party, retaining it at the 1964, 1966 and 1970 elections.At the February 1974 election he lost the seat by 7,766 votes to the Liberal candidate Stephen Ross despite having won a huge 17,326 majority over Labour in 1970.