A CONSERVATIVE MP ordered to carry out community service after he admitted faking two expenses invoices has been told he faces a fight to save his political career.

Chris Davies, the MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, was told the electorate will be left to "judge" whether he must now face a by-election after being convicted of submitting forged claims for £700 worth of landscape photographs to decorate his new office.

A Tory party spokesman said Davies had been "given a formal warning from the Chief Whip" following his conviction, and said it was "right that the people of Brecon and Radnorshire now get to have their say about whether they still support Mr Davies".

Southwark Crown Court heard the 51-year-old, elected in 2015, was legally entitled to spend money on his office but that submitting false documents was illegal.

He was handed a £1,500 fine, told to pay £2,500 towards costs and ordered to carry out 50 hours of community service when he was sentenced on Tuesday, April 23.

Speaking after sentencing, Davies vowed to continue as an MP - despite defence counsel Thomas Forster QC admitting his client's political career was likely "in tatters".

Sentencing, Mr Justice Edis said: "It is not for the courts to distinguish between good MPs and bad ones when sentencing them for crimes - that is a matter for their electorate to judge.

"The (Parliamentary Standards) Act provides that there will be a Recall process which may end your political career.

"That is a substantial consequence of your offending, but is part of the machinery created by the Act to attempt to rebuild and then preserve the trust of the public in its Parliament."

The Recall process can result in MPs who are handed prison terms of less than a year being subject to a petition to oust them.

This could trigger a by-election if at least 10 per cent of the electorate in that constituency sign it.

A recall petition involving Peterborough's Labour MP Fiona Onasanya is due to close next month after she was jailed for perverting the course of justice.

Davies currently holds a majority of more than 8,000 for a constituency seat in which just over 41,000 people voted in 2017.