DAVE Jones, as a prospective Labour candidate, was preparing to do battle with the Tories in Bromsgrove at the May local elections, but now he's steeling himself to take part in a more deadly conflict.

Dave, a major in the Territorial Army, is among the tens of thousands of British soldiers who, along with 250,000 American troops, are in Kuwait poised to strike at Iraq.

Leaving his wife Wendy and their twin girls who are four on Friday, at their home in Stoke Prior, his company set off for the Gulf a little over three weeks ago.

On Monday, Wendy said in his latest letter home he talked of the heat, dust and the fact that everything was "quiet at the moment".

Sean Shannon, Labour's election agent said Dave would be allocated one of the 39 wards in the district at a meeting set for this Friday.

He said there was no reason why Dave, a housing association manager could not successfully contest a seat, even though he was thousands of miles away.

He added Dave had high political ambitions and saw a seat on the district council as a stepping stone to achieving that aim.

If he is successful in the polls on May 1, and depending on when the war against Saddam started, Dave is likely to be overseas for the foreseeable future.

Mr Shannon said if that was the case, he hoped the other political parties would agree to waive the rule requiring councillors to attend a specific number of meetings or face expulsion from the council chamber.