Fiona Onasanya becomes first MP to be kicked out of Parliament by voters

Former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has lost her seat in the House of Commons after a recall petition.

Onasanya, 35, became the first female MP to be jailed after lying to officers about who was driving her car to avoid a speeding ticket.

The crime caused her to be booted out of the Labour Party and now almost 20,000 registered voters in her Peterborough constituency have signed a recall petition demanding her removal.

She is the first MP ever to be removed by the recall process, introduced by David Cameron in 2015.

Some 19,261 people signed the petition – 27.64% of those eligible to take part and well above the 10% threshold for a recall.

The successful petition now triggers a by-election in the Peterborough constituency, in which Onasanya is permitted to stand as an independent.

Onasanya was first elected to Parliament as a Labour MP by a wafer-thin majority of 607 in 2017.

A year later, she was charged with perverting the course of justice after lying about a speeding offence.

She was expelled by Labour after her conviction and served less than four weeks of a three-month prison sentence earlier this year.

She replaced Conservative MP Steward Jackson in Peterborough, who said of today’s news: ‘The proper result. The people of Peterborough have done the right thing.’

A spokeswoman for Peterborough Council said the petition had been signed by 19,261 people, far above the 7,000 signatures required.

She added: ‘This means that the petition is successful and the Peterborough parliamentary seat is now vacant.’

The Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Peterborough Paul Bristow, said: ‘The people of Peterborough deserve a better MP who will vote in Parliament to deliver Brexit.

‘I’m delighted this result gives local people the chance to make their voices heard and vote for a better MP – and it will be a choice between Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour candidate and me.’

Commons speaker John Bercow confirmed the news and told MPs: ‘Fiona Onasanya is no longer the member for Peterborough and the seat is accordingly vacant.

‘She can therefore no longer participate in any parliamentary proceedings as a member of parliament.’

Last month, she sparked fury by voting in favour of a bill to block Brexit which passed in the House of Commons by just one vote.

When the petition’s launch on March 19, Onasanya shared a video begging voters to keep her in power.

Speaking in front of an image of a New York skyline she insists she is innocent of perverting the course of justice.

Jurors at the Old Bailey were told that she colluded with her brother Festus after her car was clocked speeding at 41mph in a 30mph zone in the village of Thorney, near Peterborough, in July 2017.

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, who was away visiting his parents in Russia.

Festus, 34, from Cambridge, was jailed for 10 months after he admitted three counts of perverting the course of justice over speeding, including the July 24 incident.