Brecon and Radnorshire by-election: Voting opens in poll that could cut Tories’ majority to one
Liberal Democrats expected to capture seat from expenses fraud Tory MP
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Your support makes all the difference.Voters are preparing to head to the polls in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election that could see Boris Johnson’s majority in the House of Commons cut to just one.
The Liberal Democrats are expected to gain the Welsh seat in the election, which was triggered after a successful recall petition against Conservative MP Chris Davies, who was convicted of making a false expenses claim.
Mr Davies is standing again for the Conservatives but is expected to lose his seat to Liberal Democrat challenger Jane Dodds, a former social worker.
If that happens, it would reduce the Tories’ governing majority to one, after it was cut to two last week when Dover MP Charlie Elphicke was suspended by the party after being charged with three counts of sexual assault.
Mr Johnson visited Brecon on Tuesday as part of his tour of the UK’s four nations this week.
The seat, which voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, has swung back and forth between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in recent years.
It was captured by Mr Davies in 2015 and the Conservative increased his majority to more than 8,000 at the 2017 general election.
However, he was recalled by his constituents after being found to have faked invoices – an act that the judge in the case said had been “done quite deliberately”.
In one of the first examples of a so-called Remain alliance being put into practice, pro-EU parties Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and the Independent Group for Change decided not to field candidates in the by-election in order to give the Liberal Democrats the best chance of winning the seat.
On the eve of the poll, Ms Dodds, the leader of Liberal Democrats in Wales, said the pact was a “very symbolic gesture”.
She told The Daily Telegraph: “They wanted one remain party on the ballot paper and they also recognise that the Liberal Democrats are the only party in Brecon and Radnorshire that can beat the Conservatives. But it is actually not just about Plaid Cymru and the Greens standing down. It is about people wanting a change.”
Mr Davies, meanwhile, told the Financial Times that he was “still out fighting for every vote”.
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