THE general election is five weeks away but there are still gaps to be filled on ballot papers.

Political parties and independent candidates have until 4pm on June 7 to submit their nominations to election officials.

While many candidates have declared they will stand, there are still some significant places to fill.

Labour are yet to announce who will be standing in the new constituency of Dudley (which was created in boundary changes last year) to challenge Conservative Marco Longhi who represented Dudley North (now cancelled) in the last parliament.

Dudley has traditionally been strong Labour territory and they will be looking to recapture the constituency, which is regarded as one of the 33 ‘red wall’ seats captured by the Tories in the 2019 election that helped deliver a whopping majority for the blues in the House of Commons.

Sources in the Labour Party say an announcement on who will stand in Dudley will be made within the next few days.

Other candidates for the Dudley constituency include Ian Flynn for the Liberal Democrats, Zia Qari for the Greens and Andrew Southall for Reform UK.

The Stourbridge constituency, which has also had boundary changes, was represented by Suzanne Webb for the Conservatives until the dissolution of Parliament and she is aiming to retain her seat when the country goes to the polls on July 4.

Labour’s Cat Eccles will be looking to take the Stourbridge seat, long-time campaigner Chris Bramall will be fighting for the Lib Dems, Richard Shaw is hoping to pick up votes for Reform UK and Stephen Price will be representing the Greens.

Halesowen also has new boundaries and Conservative James Morris will want to keep the seat he won when it was Halesowen and Rowley Regis in 2010 but Labour’s Alex Ballinger has other ideas.

Emma Bullard will be on Halesowen’s ballot paper for the Greens, Ryan Priest is standing for the Lib Dems while Reform UK are yet to name their candidate.