Council candidates set to slug it out across Dudley

Dudley politicians are gearing up for hotly contested elections which will shape how the borough is run for the coming year.

The Conservatives are the biggest group and currently control Dudley Council with help from the Liberal Democrats while Labour is the largest opposition group.

Reform UK and The Black Country Party also have councillors and all the parties will be looking to win as many of the 25 seats that will be up for grabs when voters have their say on May 7.

The Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK and  are all fielding a full slate of 25 candidates 

As always, some seats around the borough are sure to be keenly fought over as candidates slug it out for the right to walk the corridors of power.

Big beasts Shaun Keasey (Reform UK) and Bill Etheridge (Conservative) will be going head to head in the Sedgley ward where they are both turning their backs on the political past.

Cllr Keasey was elected as a Sedgley councillor for the Conservative Party in 2018, beating Mr Etheridge who stood for UKIP.

Cllr Keasey, who stood for election as a UKIP candidate in 2016, held the seat for the Tories in 2022 and was re-elected as an independent in 2024 before he joined Reform UK.

Mr Etheridge served as a Conservative member of Dudley Council before he  joined Nigel Farage’s UKIP where he became an MEP.

The other candidates for Sedgley are Colin Drewery (Green), Tremaine Herbert (Labour) and John Slim (Lib Dem).

Also in the north of the borough former Conservative MP Marco Longhi is standing in Upper Gornal and Woodsetton for Reform UK against deputy mayor Mushtaq Hussain who will be defending the seat for Labour.

Also standing in the ward are Charlie Hilken (Green), Zoe Bradley (Conservative) and Elaine Sheppard (Lib Dem).

In the Brockmoor and Pensnett ward, former Labour councillor John Martin is looking to win the seat for the party but will face a strong challenge from Joel Hyde for Reform UK.

A shock by-election result in 2024 returned Conservative councillor in the usually safe Labour seat and Matt Snell will be aiming to repeat the achievement for the Tories while incumbent councillor Karen Westwood, who defected from Labour to The Black Country Party, will be aiming to retain her seat.

John Bramall is also standing in Brockmoor and Pensnett for the Liberal Democrats. 

The always unpredictable ward of Wollaston and Stourbridge Town is the only Dudley ward in the 2026 election where two councillors will be chosen.

Jason Griffin will be defending his seat for Labour while a second seat is up for grabs after Labour MP for Stourbridge Cat Eccles stood down from the council.

Liberal Democrats Lois Bramall and David Sheppard are hoping to join fellow Lib Dem Cllr Andrew Tromans to make it a clean sweep for the party.

Cllr Tromans was elected as a Labour councillor in 2024 before switching to the Lib Dems, Labour’s Marie Fields will be hoping to fend off a challenge from Reform UK’s Andrew Southall and Kam Macleod.

The ward has a habit of delivering close results, the three Conservative Party candidates in 2024 came close to winning a seat, Nic Barlow, who this year is backing the Lib Dems, lost out by just 28 votes.

This year Conservatives Richard Prosser and Steve Hancock will be in the running for a place in the council chamber along with Ruth Battersea and Linda Foster from The Green Party and Ken Moore from Freedom Alliance.