In the last general election, the margin of defeat for second-placed Conservatives was lower than the number of votes cast for UKIP in six of their local target seats: Dudley North, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Solihull, Telford, Walsall North and , Walsall South.

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But when I spoke to the former West Midlands minister, the Labour MP for Dudley North Ian Austin, he told me what most people would notice in the Autumn Statement was the further erosion of their living standards because of the Government's economic failures: the squeeze on their benefits and continuing year-on-year cuts to local services.

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The Birmingham Airport and NEC areas are also part of the scheme, along with the A41 Warwick Road, the road from Birmingham to Walsall, the west of the Black Country, the A457 Dudley Road and north Coventry.

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The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry, which is the armoured regiment for the West Midlands and north west of England, has squadrons based in Dudley, Telford, Chester, Wigan and Hereford.

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