Everywhere the proletariat are the tag, rag and bobtail of the official parties, and if any party has gained additional strength from the new voters, it is the Tories. The small towns, the half rotten boroughs are the salvation of bourgeois liberalism and the roles will be reversed: the Tories will now be in favour of more members for the big towns and the Liberals for unequal representation.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1868/letters/68_11_18-abs.htm
Actually Engels wrote this about the 1868 Election after the 1867 Reform Act had extended the electorate. It has no real direct relevance to Brecon in 2019 except there is something about two pro-austerity candidates fighting each other with the ultimate result that things remain much as they were. That was the outcome in 1868 in Brecon too
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Howel Gwyn | 372 | 51.0 | N/A | |
| Liberal | Hugh Powell Price[10] | 357 | 49.0 | N/A | |
| Majority | 15 | 2.1 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 729 | 89.6 | N/A | ||
| Registered electors | 814 | ||||
| Conservative gain from Liberal | Swing | N/A | |||
The election was declared void on petition, causing a by-election. The Liberals won the subsequent election in 1869
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