Dudley Council elections: Full list of candidates standing in this year's poll

They include one in each ward, apart from St Thomas's where a vacant seat means that two councillors will be elected.

Last time this set of seats were contested in 2019 the Conservatives won 13 seats to Labour's 11. This year the opposition will be hoping to make inroads into council leader Patrick Harley's administration's majority, which currently stands at 18.

A total of 16 sitting councillors are defending their seats next month. For Labour, group leader Qadar Zada will defend a sizeable majority in Netherton, Woodside and St Andrew's, while Ridha Ahmed returns to contest the Brierley Hill seat she landed by just 25 votes in 2019.

Pete Drake (Coseley East), Richard Body (Cradley and Wollescote), Parmjit Sahota (Halesowen North), Mohammed Hanif (Lye & Stourbridge North), Jackie Cowell (Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood) and Adam Aston (Upper Gornal and Woodsetton) will all bid to retain their seats.

The Conservatives will be without former leader and borough mayor Anne Millward in Gornal, who claimed misogyny was behind a decision to deselect her.

She is standing as an independent against new Tory candidate Claire Sullivan, who lost narrowly to Labour last year in Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood.

Other Conservatives to be deselected include Tina Westwood in Sedgley, and Karen Shakespeare in Norton, who was first elected to the council 23 years ago. The council's deputy leader Steve Clarke has been selected to contest the seat in her place, having moved over from Wollaston and Stourbridge Town.

Current Tory councillors who are defending their seats include cabinet member Ian Bevan (Hayley Green & Cradley South), Simon Phipps (Belle Vale), Alan Taylor (Halesowen South) and Matt Rogers (Wordsley).

In Upper Gornal and Woodsetton Lynette Corfield, wife of cabinet member Damian Corfield, will stand as the Conservative candidate in memory of her son Ben, who died in November in a car smash.

He had been planning to stand in the seat this year having been narrowly beaten last year by the Labour candidate in Brierley Hill.

Mayor Sue Greenaway faces a stiff task to defend the Brockmoor & Pensnett seat she won by 35 votes in 2019, with the ward one of several targeted by Labour.

A Conservative source said this set of elections were likely to be "tough" due to the "difficult national picture" for the party.

However, they have not ruled out making gains in seats such as Brierley Hill, where the party has put forward former firefighter Wayne Little having increased its vote share in the ward in recent elections.

For Labour, council stalwart and former mayor Ken Finch is standing down in Castle & Priory, having been first elected in 1980.

Other seats targeted as potential gains for Labour include Belle Vale, and Wollaston and Stourbridge Town.

Both the Lib Dems and the Greens are entering the elections mob-handed, with 20 candidates each, while Reform UK and TUSC both have four candidates and the Libertarian Party has two.

The Lib Dem candidates include veteran campaigner and former councillor Chris Bramall in Wollaston and Stourbridge Town, who has stood in seven general elections dating back to 1997 and umpteen council elections.

Voters in St Thomas's ward will elect two councillors, with one seat vacant after Labour councillor Maimoona Qari stood down having only won it last year.

Both major parties recorded gains in the 2022 local elections, with Labour taking three seats off the Tories, who increased their overall seat total by one.

For the first time at these elections voters will need to show photo ID at polling stations under new Electoral Commission rules.

Current state of play: Conservative controlled administration – Cons 45; Lab 25; Indep 1; Vacant 1

Seats up for grabs: 25 (one third plus vacant seat)

*denotes party that won in 2019, when these seats were last contested.

Amblecote

Ian Flynn (Lib Dem)

Luke Hamblett (Lab)

Pete Lee (Cons)*

Adrian Mabe (Green)

Belle Vale

Deanne Brettle (Green)

Sarah Furhuraire (Lib Dem)

Simon Phipps (Cons)*

Savannah Southorn (Lab)

Brierley Hill

Ridha Ahmed (Lab)*

Trevor Bunn (Reform)

Wayne Little (Cons)

Mark Percox (Green)

Mollie Priest (Lib Dem)

Brockmoor & Pensnett

Sue Greenaway (Cons)*

Tracey Gregg (Lib Dem)

Lawrence Rowlett (Green)

Austin Ward (Reform)

Karen Westwood (Lab)

Castle & Priory

David Bramall (Lib Dem)

Karl Denning (Lab)*

Ant Dugmore (Green)

Nicola Fisher (TUSC)

Sat Nawabzada (Cons)

Coseley East

Peter Drake (Lab)*

Sam Oakley (Green)

Richard Tasker (Cons)

Cradley & Wollescote

Richard Body (Lab)*

Siobhan Friel (TUSC)

Kash Khan (Green)

Ryan Priest (Lib Dem)

Jason Thorne (Cons)

Gornal

Nathan Hunt (Reform)

Mushtaq Hussain (Lab)

Anne Millward (no party listed)

Dan Spear (Green)

Claire Sullivan (Cons)*

Elizabeth Tilly (Lib Dem)

Halesowen North

Ash Flavin (Green)

Jeff Hill (Cons)

Abdul Qadus (Lib Dem)

Parmjit Sahota (Lab)*

Halesowen South

Derek Campbell (Lib Dem)

Donella Russell (Lab)

Alan Taylor (Cons)*

James Windridge (Green)

Hayley Green & Cradley South

Tony Barnsley (Lab)

Ian Bevan (Cons)*

Ethan Stafford (Lib Dem)

Kingswinford North & Wall Heath

Andrew Bennett (Green)

Jonathan Bramall (Lib Dem)

Michael Mitchell (Lab)

Mark Webb (Cons)*

Kingswinford South

Simon Daniel (Lab)

Saima Furhuraire (Lib Dem)

Peter Miller (Cons)*

Lye & Stourbridge North

Naz Ahmed (Green)

Mohammed Hanif (Lab)*

Robert Johns (Lib Dem)

Shazad Mahmood (Cons)

Netherton, Woodside & St Andrew's

Mark Binnersley (Green)

Viorica Faraji (Cons)

Qadar Zada (Lab)*

Norton

Steve Clarke (Cons)*

Madeleine Cowley (Lab)

Ken Moore (Indep)

Stephen Price (Green)

David Sheppard (Lib Dem)

Pedmore & Stourbridge East

Jason Griffin (Lab)

Simon Hanson (Lib Dem)

Ian Kettle (Cons)*

Catherine Maguire (Green)

Quarry Bank & Dudley Wood

Muhammad Ali (Cons)

Pam Archer (Green)

Jackie Cowell (Lab)*

Richard Priest (Lib Dem)

Sedgley

Caroline Benton (Lib Dem)

Martin Day (Libertarian)

Colin Drewery (Green)

Matt Dudley (Cons)*

Joanne Morgan (Lab)

Brad Simms (no party listed)

St James's

Cathryn Bayton (Lab)*

Benjamin France (Lib Dem)

Rab Rana (Cons)

St Thomas's (two seats)

Sajid Hanif (Cons)

Shaneila Mughal (Lab)*

Najeeb Muhammad (Cons)

Zia Qari (Green)

Adeela Qayyum (Lab)

Lee Robertson (TUSC)

John Slim (Lib Dem)

Upper Gornal & Woodsetton

Adam Aston (Lab)*

Lynette Corfield (Cons)

Greg Markowski (Indep)

Wollaston & Stourbridge Town

Chris Bramall (Lib Dem)

Lisa Clinton (Cons)*

Maxim Lowe (Libertarian)

Andi Mohr (Green)

Andrew Tromans (Lab)

Wordsley

Sarah Daniel (Lab)

Bill Harman (Reform)

Matt Rogers (Cons)*

Elaine Sheppard (Lib Dem)

Jennifer Slater-Reid (Green)

Key:

TUSC – Trade Union and Socialist Coalition