A job the new leader will be hoping to leave soon

Pete Lowe is going to take over the reins at Dudley Council because David Sparks is tied up with chairing the Local Government Association.

But he's also the Labour candidate for Stourbridge at next year's General Election.

This assumes Councillor Lowe is confident of winning the marginal seat, of course.

It won't be an easy fight. Tory Margot James overturned a wafer thin Labour majority there in 2010 and ended up with a respectable, but not unbeatable, lead of 5,164.

Councillor Lowe is clearly highly respected within the Labour ranks, hence running unopposed.

And with 42 out of the 72 seats on the council, it is not as though they were short of possible contenders.

If he wins Stourbridge and stands down, it'll mean the council ends up with its third leader in three years.

That's something Margot James or the other candidates would probably be delighted to help it avoid.

Ahead of his own selection meeting, Pete Lowe congratulated Mike Wood on being chosen as the Tory candidate for Dudley South, while also urging people to vote for Labour's Natasha Millward in the same tweet.

Dudley South's Tories decided to throw open the selection process to the public, copying the US system of open primaries.

Mr Wood, also a councillor for the Dudley borough, was chosen from a shortlist of four with members of the public who live in the constituency invited to register to attend.

The press weren't allowed in but the Tories said 80 people registered and in the end 45 turned up, a mixture of members and non-members of the party.

Labour seized on this as evidence that the party was heading for disaster.

We'll have to wait until May to see.

And there was a brave face put on it by the Tories who blamed the cold, miserable November night for people staying in.

Still, it must have been good for the Tory members' egos to know there was at least one Labour member in their midst keeping an eye on proceedings and tweeting about the numbers.

And one Labour source suggested it was a brave move by the Tories to offer such an insight into selection proceedings to non-members, particularly those they are hoping to keep on side come May.

"Everyone should be invited to the barbecue but you don't show them how you make the sausages," he said.

There was a metaphor in there somewhere but now I'm just hungry.

Mike Wood will be replacing Chris Kelly as the Tory candidate. Mr Kelly is standing down as an MP after one term. But the new contender is following Mr Kelly by being a declared Eurosceptic. Mr Wood admits that David Cameron's renegotiation of Britain's relationship with the EU would have to bring a 'fundamental' change for him to want to vote to stay in if the promised referendum goes ahead.

That's certainly going to be an easier position to defend that being pro-EU and pro-referendum.

Labour doesn't want one.

The Tories do. But what a mixed message they'd send if they promise to give the public a choice then hope they don't make the 'wrong' one.