BORIS Johnson’s government now has a working majority of just one after the LibDems defeated the Tories at a by-election in Wales.
Passing legislation in the House of Commons, or even surviving a vote of no confidence will be even harder, if not downright impossible for the new Prime Minister. Many of his own MPs have already baulked at his commitment to taking the UK out of the EU on October 31, “do or die”.
Before Parliament broke up for recess, 17 Tories voted for Dominic Grieve’s amendment to the Northern Ireland bill, which was aimed at preventing the prorogation
of Parliament. And since then, a number of former ministers opposed to a No-Deal Brexit have joined the Tory backbenches, including Philip Hammond, David Gauke, Greg Clark and Rory Stewart.
It is thought some of these MPs would vote to bring the government down if a confidence vote became the only way of preventing No Deal.
Thursday’s by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire was sparked after the incumbent Tory MP, Chris Davies, was found guilty of fiddling his expenses.
He was convicted of submitting two false expenses claims for a total of £700 for nine photographs for his office. He was fined £1500, ordered to pay £2500 towards legal costs and told to carry out 50 hours of community service.
Local campaigners then used new legislation to open a petition calling for a by-election. A total of 10,005 people signed, around 19% of his constituents and well above the 10% threshold needed for a recall.
Incredibly, despite this, the Tories then re-selected the convicted expenses fraudster to stand as their candidate.
The LibDems were boosted by an alliance with the Greens and Plaid Cymru that allowed them to be the only Remain party standing. Their candidate, Jane Dodds, won 13,826 votes, overturning the Davies’s 8000 majority.
The Tories weren’t too far behind, taking 12,401 votes. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party took 3331, pushing Labour into fourth with just 1680.
A Brexit party source told the Press Association they had sent a message to the Tories to “get Brexit done or we will keep taking your votes”.
Dodds said her first act as an MP would be to find the Prime Minister and tell him to rule out a No Deal Brexit.
She said: “People are desperately crying out for a different kind of politics. There is no time for tribalism when our country is faced with a Boris Johnson government and the threat of a No Deal Brexit.”
Dodds thanked the Greens and Plaid Cymru for their “courageous decision” to back her.
Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, above, said: “If the Prime Minister is intent on a General Election, he should know that Plaid Cymru and the other pro-Remain parties are committed to co-operating so that we beat Brexit once and for all.”
The new LibDem leader, Jo Swinson, who visited the constituency four times during the by-election, said the result showed “the country doesn’t have to settle for Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn”.
She added: “Boris Johnson’s shrinking majority makes it clear that he has no mandate to crash us out of the EU."
In his losing speech Davies thanked his wife and family “who have had a difficult time over the last few months”.
Tory Party chairman James Cleverly said it was a “disappointing” result but said there were some positives for his party.
“What we saw was a very close result in a by-election in which the LibDems were expected to romp home comfortably,” he said.
In a message to Tory MPs concerned about the party’s Brexit policy he added: “The Prime Minister got a clear mandate from parliamentarians ... the wider Conservative Party gave him an even more thumping victory in the leadership election. So I do think it’s incumbent on all Conservatives to support the Prime Minister on what has been a long-standing Conservative policy.”
Johnson now holds the record for losing a seat in a by-election faster than any other prime minister.
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