But Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood said international investors now needed reassurance that the UK remained "at the heart" of European decision-making while his colleague Jo Swinson accused the PM of "rushing for the exit" rather than trying to secure a consensus.
Gareth Thomas, the Labour MP for Harrow West and a former international development minister, told the committee he had been "worried" by the influx of Conservative money into his constituency during the general election campaign.
Mark Lancaster MP, parliamentary secretary to Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, visited the island himself in 2009 and stressed the long-term benefits.
The MP explained he had been given a diagram showing plans for a new hanger at Cardiff International Airport with facilities for just 1, 500 of the 3, 000 staff.
He later returns to government as Africa Minister, but Chief Whip and fellow North East MP Hilary Armstrong is seen in the play as instrumental in preventing him succeed Clare Short as International Development Secretary.