(Bloomberg) -- The anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats won a by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire, reducing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s majority in the House of Commons to a single seat and making his balancing act more difficult as he seeks to deliver Brexit by Oct. 31.The Liberal Democrats overturned a Tory majority of 8,038 in the special election, forced by a recall petition after Conservative Member of Parliament Chris Davies was convicted of faking expenses claims. Jane Dodds of the Liberal Democrats won 13,826 votes, beating Davies, who had stood for re-election, on 12,401.It was the first test at the ballot box for Johnson since he became premier on July 24, pledging to leave the European Union with or without an exit agreement. The result means Johnson’s government, which relies on the votes of 10 MPs from the Democratic Unionist Party along with 310 voting Conservative MPs, has a working majority of just one. There are now 319 opposition MPs able to vote in the House of Commons, including 13 Liberal Democrats.“My first act as an MP will be to find Boris Johnson and tell him loud and clear to stop playing with the future of our communities and rule out a no-deal Brexit,” Dodds said in her victory speech. “Let’s get to work.”Johnson’s strategy has been to commit to leaving the EU “come what may” by the end of October in a bid to win back voters who defected to the Brexit Party in the European elections. The result in Brecon, which is estimated to have mirrored the U.K. with a 52% - 48% vote for Leave in 2016, suggests he still has more to do.The win cements the resurgence of the Liberal Democrats, who won 20% of the vote in May’s European Parliament election after seeing their poll ratings decimated following five years in coalition with the Conservatives to 2015. They also have a new leader after Jo Swinson was elected to the post last week. Their national support has been at about 20% in recent surveys.Des Parkinson of the Brexit Party came third with 3,331 votes with Labour’s Tom Davies on 1,680. Neither Plaid Cymru, which campaigns for Welsh independence, nor the Green Party put up a candidate, instead urging their their supporters to vote Liberal Democrat to maximize the chances of sending a “Remain” MP to Westminster.The threat of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party to Johnson was clear in the by-election: if the Conservatives had won the votes that went to the Brexit candidate, they would’ve won the seat.Johnson’s room for maneuver is wafer-thin. His predecessor Theresa May’s Brexit agreement with the European Union was defeated three times in the House of Commons, and her successor will need every vote he can get if he is to get any new deal with Brussels through Parliament.Johnson has a little more breathing space as Charlie Elphicke, an MP who has been suspended from the Conservative Party after he was charged with three counts of sexual assault, is still likely to vote with the party.The tight margins have led to speculation that Johnson could call a snap election to secure a bigger majority -- or force through a no-deal divorce -- but the result in Brecon might give him pause.To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net;Joe Mayes in London at jmayes9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Reinie BooysenFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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