Expenses cheat Chris Davies becomes SECOND MP to be booted out

Boris Johnson is set to face the first big political test of his leadership against Nigel Farage‘s Brexit Party days after taking over as prime minister in a tense by-election.

Assuming he wins the Tory leadership campaign the runaway favourite will lead the party into a crunch vote in Wales after expenses cheat Chris Davies was booted from the Commons by a recall petition.

The by-election is likely in the last week of July – days after the new PM is unveiled – in Brecon and Radnorshire, which in a mirror image of the nation as a whole voted 52% to 48% to leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum. 

Nigel Farage’s Party confirmed today that it would stand against the Conservatives, with chairman Richard Tice saying: ‘The sheer scale of the vote to force a recall and a by-election shows how strongly the level of dissatisfaction with politics in the country is rising up the agenda.

‘The Brexit Party will be contesting the forthcoming by election. It is clear that people of this county want to change politics for good.’ 

Mr Davies, 51, became the second MP to lose a recall petition following the by-election in Peterborough earlier this month in which the Tories limped home in fourth place.

Labour just held off the Brexit Party to retain the Cambridgeshire seat previously held by disgraced Fiona Onasanya. 

But Mr Davies had an 8,000 majority in Brecon, while Peterborough was a Tory/Labour marginal, and any defeat or narrow win in the south east Wales seat would be greeted with panic in Tory HQ.  

Any swing to the Brexit Party could either win it the seat or split the Brexiteer vote and hand the area to the Remainer Lib Dems – who held it for almost 20 years until 2015.

Welsh nationalist party suggested it was also open to a pact with a fellow Remain-backing party. 

A source told the Press Association that while the party could field its own candidate for the by-election, it was ‘open’ to pacts, agreements, and even a joint candidate for the upcoming by-election, adding the Lib Dems would be ‘the likely choice’ to work with. 

Some 10,005 people, 19 per cent of the 56,032 electorate, voted to trigger the by-election, substantially more than the 10 per cent that was needed, Powys County Council revealed today.  

Voters who wanted to sign the recall petition had to do so in person as a series of polling station-style venues were set up by the local authority. 

Mr Davies confirmed his intention to stand, saying: ‘What happened was my fault and no one else’s. 

‘I sincerely apologise to all the people of Brecon and Radnorshire – and now it is absolutely right that they have their say about whether they would still support me to be their Member of Parliament in a by-election.

‘I hope they do, and look forward to regaining their trust and building on the progress we have made over the last four years.’ 

Mr Davies has been MP for Brecon and Radnorshire since the 2015 general election, where he beat incumbent Liberal Democrat Roger Williams with the constituency’s largest majority since 1983. 

The Conservative MP was convicted for faking expenses claims after he admitted to submitting two false expenses invoices for landscape photographs to decorate his new office in 2015. 

He was fined £1,500, ordered to pay £2,500 towards legal costs and told to carry out 50 hours of community service.

The recall petition opened on May 9 and Mr Davies’ constituents had six weeks to sign it .

Ten per cent or more of constituents – around 5,600 people – had to sign it to force him out of his seat and force a by-election, in which he will be allowed to stand for re-election. 

A swing of 9.8 per cent would be needed by the Lib Dem candidate Jane Dodds to win the seat which saw a majority of 8,038 for Mr Davies in 2017. 

If the Tories were to lose the by-election the Government’s working majority in the House of Commons would be reduced to three. 

Onasanya was thrown out of the Labour Party immediately after her conviction, but sat as an independent until the petition result, and did not stand in the by-election.

She became the first MP to be unseated from the Commons in a recall petition in May after she was jailed for perverting the course of justice ater lying to police to avoid a speeding charge.

Mr Davies, in contrast, has retained the Tory whip. 

Recall petitions are launched when MPs receive a custodial sentence, including suspended sentences, are barred from the Commons for 10 sitting days or are convicted of providing false information about their expenses.

The verification of the petition and count took place at 10am today at County Hall in Llandrindod Wells, Powys.

The Petition Officer notified House of Commons Speaker John Bercow of the outcome before the result was made public.

Ms Dodds said: ‘Now we have a golden opportunity to do things differently. The clear choice in this by-election is between the Conservatives, whose chaos and infighting is letting our communities down, and a better future for our area with the Welsh Lib Dems.’  

Ian Lavery the Labour Party chairman, added: ‘It is clear the Conservative Party is in crisis and unfit to govern.

‘After a decade of austerity under the Tories, propped up by the Lib Dems, we don’t just need a by election in Brecon and Radnorshire, we need a General Election and a Labour government.’

How Team Boris threatened ministers with career death to ensure Gove’s defeat and the mystery of the crucial ‘missing’ Johnson votes that could have gone to ensure he faces the rival he WANTED to fight

Boris Johnson‘s team warned ministers that failing to publicly back him would destroy their careers amid a ‘dirty tricks’ backlash over the Tory leadership vote, it was claimed today.

One was warned that it would be ‘a shame if you failed to make progress’ by not swapping from a rival candidate quickly enough ahead of yesterday’s votes which saw Mr Johnson chosen to face Jeremy Hunt in the final two.

Supporters of Environment Secretary Michael Gove questioned whether Mr Johnson’s team arranged for some of the runaway favourite’s backers to ‘lend’ votes to the Foreign Secretary to ensure he got through – something it denies.

Following the elimination of Sajid Javid from the race on Thursday morning with 34 votes, at least five of the Home Secretary’s supporters – Chris Philp, Chris Skidmore, Mims Davies, Kevin Foster and Mike Wood – said they would switch to Mr Johnson. 

But the former foreign secretary’s vote tally only increased by three, raising eyebrows at Westminster and fuelling the suggestion that some of his most loyal supporters had been instructed to vote for Mr Hunt. 

Mr Hunt went on to beat Mr Gove by just two votes, the same number as were missing from the expected increase in support for the favourite. 

Team Boris see the mild-mannered minister as a preferred choice of opponent to Mr Gove, his former confidant turned nemesis, who would be more likely to fight dirty in public. 

A source told MailOnline that a former supporter of the frontrunner’s eliminated fellow hardline Brexiteer Dominic Raab was warned to fall in line behind him by Gavin Williamson, his campaign chief.

Mr Williamson, a former chief whip, was said to have warned them: ‘If I wanted you to vote for someone else I’d tell you.’ 

It came as questions were raised over the way the vote was conducted, with 90 MPs allowed to vote by ‘proxy’ so they could choose their candidate despite not being there. 

Mr Johnson came first in the vote with 160. But Mr Hunt came home just two votes ahead of Mr Gove, 77-75.  

One supporter of Mr Johnson said that the result was revenge for the way that Mr Gove had turned on him in the last leadership race in 2016, going from his chief of staff to a rival candidate.

The source told the Times: ‘Gove stabbed us in the back — we’ve stabbed him in the front.’

The result in the fifth and final ballot came after Mr Gove had managed to finish second in the fourth round, sending shockwaves through the contest. 

Mr Gove’s decision to stand for the leadership in 2016 scuppered Mr Johnson’s campaign and the wounds have not healed.

There was also widespread speculation – denied by Mr Johnson – that supporters of the frontrunner were being encouraged to vote tactically in order to prevent Mr Gove reaching the final ballot. 

Boris Johnson supporter Johnny Mercer denied there were dark ops during the Tory leadership campaign.

He told the Today programme: ‘I have to be honest, I’m pretty close to Mr Johnson and the operation and the campaign, and I just haven’t seen it – I haven’t seen it going on, I’m not convinced it’s possible.’

Admitting some MPs may have ‘voted for different people at different times’, he added: ‘I don’t think there’s some sort of underhand operation and people like Mel Stride, who ran Michael’s operation, he has accepted that as well.

‘It’s a great story for the media, of course, as a sort of continuation of the drama from years ago, but in reality I don’t think it exists.’

But Simon Clarke, another supporter of Mr Johnson, suggested some MPs may have ‘freelanced’ outside the official campaign.

‘I think some people might have taken it upon themselves to try and steer the outcome, ‘ he said. 

The two final candidates will attempt to woo Tory councillors this afternoon when they separately address Conservative members of the Local Government Association.  

Mr Gove’s campaign manager Mel Stride played down the prospect of a co-ordinated vote-switching operation due to the narrow margin of the defeat.

‘It doesn’t seem to me on first observation of this that there has been.

‘Because we didn’t see a situation where, as some had speculated, a very large number of votes might have transferred from say Boris Johnson to Jeremy Hunt.

‘It would appear to me everybody has behaved pretty much as one would hope they would.’

The battle to become Prime Minister will see the final two face a gruelling series of 16 hustings across the UK, starting in Birmingham on Saturday, and continuing up and down the country over the next month.

The final outcome of the leadership contest will not be known until the week beginning July 22, with the two remaining candidates taking part in a series of hustings in front of Tory members around the country before the votes are counted.

Mr Johnson and Mr Hunt will also take part in a head-to-head debate on ITV on July 9.