High-profile candidate joins election race

The starting gun was fired for the local election campaign in Sedgley after a high-profile campaigner joined the race.

Bill Etheridge confirmed he has been accepted as a candidate for the Conservatives in the ward where he will attempt to capture a seat on Dudley Council from Reform UK.

Mr Etheridge is basing his campaign for elections in May 2026 around a tough line on antisocial behaviour.

He said: “I’ve come up with the most radical, hardline change any council anywhere in the country is going to face. To my surprise the Conservatives picked it up and ran with it”

He says he has developed a comprehensive and fully costed strategy to tackle antisocial behaviour which includes zero tolerance of drug use in council homes, bringing back wardens for council estates and a mobile antisocial behaviour unit to respond to reports from residents.

Mr Etheridge is also planning increased use of CCTV,  stricter leases for council tenants, priority in council home allocation for armed service veterans and no housing for anyone who is not a British citizen.

The outspoken candidate was a member of the Conservative Party from 2008 until 2011 when he resigned following complaints about being pictured with a knitted golliwog.

He joined UKIP where he served as a borough councillor for Sedgley and member of the European Parliament. He was also an MEP for the Libertarian Party before leaving to join the Brexit Party.

Mr Etheridge said: “For over a decade I have been fighting the Conservatives, I am not a massive fan of what Sunak and Johnson did.”

He says he was approached by the Tories before the last general election and agreed to join up after Rishi Sunak resigned as party leader following a crushing defeat at the polls.

Mr Etheridge added: “Whilst I am standing as a Conservative I still believe I am coming in to add something a bit more radical and to reform things – to make things a bit more hardline.”

He says the person is more important than ‘the party badge’ and took a swipe at his former political bedfellow and leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage.

Mr Etheridge said: “As much as I admire Nigel for achieving Brexit, what he is doing now is completely misguided.”