State of play in Dudley borough constituencies after election is called

RISHI Sunak has fired the starting gun on the  general election campaign despite being a long way back in opinion polls.

The Prime Minister has gambled that falling inflation is going to persuade voters the Conservative’s plan is working.

Labour meanwhile believe they have the answers to fix the cost of living crisis after 14 years of Tory rule.

The election will have a different look in the Dudley area with boundary changes to all the constituencies meaning the demise of the Dudley South seat.

The current Dudley South MP, Conservative Mike Wood, has been shuffled over to the new constituency of South Staffordshire and Kingswinford.

The current MP in the region is Sir Gavin Williamson who holds the safe seat of South Staffordshire with a whopping majority of 28,250 from the last election.

Dudley North has become just Dudley and is held by the Conservative Marco Longhi with a majority of 11,533 from 2019.

Only the Lib Dems have declared their candidate to fight Mr Longhi on election day, they have chosen Ian Flynn to stand.

The seat has traditionally been a Labour stronghold and the party will be targeting it as a must win when the country goes to the polls on July 4.

Stourbridge is a swing seat which has been in Tory and Labour hands over recent years.

It is currently held by Conservative Suzanne Webb with a healthy 13,571 majority from the last election in 2019.

So far Labour’s Cllr Cat Eccles and Chris Bramall for the Lib Dems are known candidates to challenge Ms Webb.

Halesowen (formerly Halesowen and Rowley Regis) has been held by James Morris for the Conservatives since 2010 and he was returned with a 12,074 majority in 2019.

He will be challenged on polling day for Labour by Alex Ballinger and Lib Dem Cllr Ryan Priest.

With campaigning now officially under way after the surprise announcement of an election more candidates will be quickly nominated and declared in all the constituencies for what is sure to be a hard-fought contest.