LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, on Thursday faced his first electoral test, a special election that could cut the ruling Conservative Party’s simple majority in parliament to just one vote. Voters on Thursday elected the new legislator for Brecon and Radnorshire in Wales, following the fall from favour of MP Chris Davies, who left office at the request of voters after being convicted of expense fraud.
Davies is running for re-election but faces the strong challenge of Liberal Democratic party candidate Jane Dodds in a choice under the shadow of Brexit. rural area 280 kilometres west of London_ voted in favour of leaving the EU by 52% against 48%, just like the national result. In Britain, voters are deeply divided around the decision and the fact that, three years later, the country has not yet left the EU. Johnson took over as prime minister last week with a promise to remove Britain from the European Union on 31 October, with or without a divorce settlement. Liberal-Democrats, supporters of continuing in the EU, hope to win the backing of anti-Brexit voters.The centrist party has just 12 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, but has lately won votes with its firm standing in favor of stay in the EU. In the May elections to the European Parliament, it won 20% of the vote in the UK, beating both Conservatives and Labour. Johnson, who visited the area on Tuesday, said “a vote for any party other than the conservative allows Liberal Democrats to go one step further to cancel the referendum result.” Part of the votes of the anti-EU sector would go not to the Conservatives but to the Brexit Party, led by the well-known Eurosceptic Nigel Farage.The Conservatives lack their own majority in the chamber and depend on an alliance with the Unionist Democratic Party of Ireland North, which has 10 seats.
