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EXPENSES fraudster Chris Davies lost his seat today after almost a fifth of registered voters in his constituency signed a petition to remove him.
The Tory MP was convicted for faking expenses claims after submitting two false expenses invoices for landscape photographs to decorate his new office.
Some 10,005 people signed the petition, well above the 10 per cent threshold — 5,303 people — needed for a recall.
The result has triggered a by-election in his Welsh constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire.
At his sentencing at Southwark crown court in April, he was fined £1,500 and ordered to complete 50 hours of community payback.
The Brexit Party has confirmed that it will stand a candidate for the seat, which was held by the Liberal Democrats from 1997 until 2015, when Mr Davies won it for the Tories.
Mr Davies is the third MP to face a recall petition, and the second to be unseated after former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya in Peterborough.
If the Tories lose this seat, their parliamentary majority will be reduced to three.
Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery said: “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.”
Defending Mr Davies, Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt said: “Whatever the rights and wrongs of his expenses claim, I have only ever known Chris Davies as a decent and honest man and a very diligent local MP.”
The by-election is likely to be held on Thursday July 25.
