Labour’s candidate has said the party will welcome back Labour supporters with open arms who lent their vote to the Liberal Democrats in tonight’s by-election.
Tom Davies, who was unsuccessful in the race to become the new MP, said he believes Labour received so few votes as Labour supporters were lending their votes to Lib Dems candidate Jane Dodds who at around 2.25am was announced as the new MP.
Mr Davies, who received 1,680 votes, said: “Obviously I’m disappointed. We knew this was going to be a different election and a difficult election.
“What we’ve seen here is a clear rejection of Boris Johnson, his threat of a no deal Brexit and the way in which he conducts himself.
“He visited the constituency before the by-election and what is clear is that people from around the constituency have rejected him.
“A large number of Labour voters have lent their votes to the Liberal Democrats and we look forward to welcoming them back.”
Mr Davies, who is also a Brecon Town Councillor, said he feels it is difficult to read into the results of the by-election which saw Labour come fourth after the Lib Dems, the Conservatives and the Brexit Party.
When asked by a Brecon & Radnor Express reporter to confirm that he saw it was “Labour supporters lending votes rather than a blow to Labour support” he responded: “Well absolutely.”
He said: “What we’ve seen is that we’ve got a seat elected with the support of Plaid Cymru and the Greens, and a significant amount of our supporters angled their votes.
“It’s difficult to read too much into this, but we will be looking into where our supporters’ votes have gone.”
After the results had been announced and the candidates gave their finishing speeches, both the new MP Jane Dodds and the former MP Chris Davies left the counting centre swiftly. UKIP candidate Liz Phillips did not attend the count.
Des Parkinson, who received the third highest number of votes with 3,331, said he felt it was a good result.
The Brexit Party candidate said: “The results were surprisingly good. We knocked out a Conservative MP who should not have been standing in the first place.
“We showed the new Prime Minister that without the support of the Brexit Party, with a good clean Brexit, you can’t win seats like this.”
Bernice Benton, who is Lady Lily the Pink for the Official Monster Raving Loony party, said she was delighted with how she’d done.
She said: “I’m delighted, I beat UKIP. How can a loony beat UKIP? They’ll have to pack up now, that’s what the SDP did when we beat them.
“My only ever intention was to try to engage with people who wouldn’t normally vote and to get them voting.”