Labour expels MP who lied to police over speeding charge
Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya has been booted out of the Labour Party after being convicted of perverting the course of justice by lying to police to avoid a speeding charge.
The Peterborough MP, who faces a possible prison sentence, had already been suspended and urged to stand down by the party after being found guilty at the Old Bailey in December.
Labour confirmed on Friday that she had been expelled before Christmas, after party chairman Ian Lavery told her local paper, the Peterborough Telegraph, that it would run a candidate in any by-election.
She took the hyper-marginal seat with a majority of just 607 from Tory Stewart Jackson at the 2017 election just 18 months ago.
Parliamentary rules require the removal of an MP who is jailed for 12 months or more.
But if the sentence is less than that a recall petition can force a by-election if it is signed by more than 10% of the electorate in the Cambridgeshire seat.
Mr Lavery told the Peterborough Telegraph that “Fiona isn’t a member of the Labour Party, she isn’t a Labour MP” and repeated the party’s call for her to resign her seat.
He added: “We would be raring to go for a by-election. We’re up for it.
“The people in Peterborough want a Labour MP – they voted for a Labour MP the last time and I’m absolutely confident from what we have to offer we would win a by-election in the very near future if one was to be held.”
Onasanya, a 35-year-old solicitor, was convicted after a retrial of colluding with her brother Festus after her car was clocked going 41mph in a 30mph zone in the village of Thorney near Peterborough in July 2017.
The court was told that she was sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to fill out, but it was sent back naming the guilty driver as Aleks Antipow, an acquaintance of her brother Festus, who was away visiting his parents in Russia.
Festus pleaded guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice over speeding, including over the July 24 incident.
In a festive season column in the Peterborough Telegraph, Onasanya indicated she would continue as an MP.
Making no mention of her conviction, she said constituents should “rest assured” that she would remain their representative fighting injustice in the corridors of power.
