Speeding lie MP faces losing her seat after judges reject appeal bid
DISGRACED MP Fiona Onasanya lost her appeal against a conviction for perverting the course of justice yesterday and could now face a constituency by-election.
Onasanya, 35, was found guilty of lying after her Nissan Micra was caught speeding in July 2017, just weeks after she was elected to Parliament.
And yesterday Court of Appeal judges told the Peterborough MP there was ‘absolutely no basis for challenging’ the conviction. The former Labour politician was released from HMP Bronzefield last week, 28 days into a three-month sentence.
And now that the trained solicitor’s appeal has been rejected, a ‘recall petition’, which would trigger a by-election, can be opened in her Cambridgeshire constituency.
A panel of judges, led by Sir Brian Leveson, criticised the MP for not having any papers with her as she represented herself at yesterday’s hearing. Rejecting her appeal bid, Sir Brian said: ‘It is a tragedy that she has damaged, probably irreparably, a promising political career, but there is absolutely no basis for challenging her conviction.’
The Court of Appeal is expected to notify Commons Speaker John Bercow of the development, and he will then contact the petition officer for the constituency.
Peterborough City Council was still awaiting notification from the Speaker yesterday, which will then give the local authority ten working days to open the petition. If 10 per cent of the electorate signs it – around 7,000 voters – she will be forced to vacate her seat and a by-election will be held.
After her conviction, the one-time Jeremy Corbyn ally was thrown out of the Labour party but refused to quit her seat – saying the £77,000 salary was her only source of income. Both Labour and the Tories believe they can win in the constituency, which Onasanya took by only 607 votes in 2017. It is not clear whether she would contest the seat in a by-election.
During her trial, Onasanya claimed that she could not remember whether she was driving at the time so did not fill in a notice of intended prosecution sent by Cambridgeshire Police.
She then misled investigators by insisting that the document – which falsely named a Russian man as the driver – had been filled in correctly. Her brother Festus was also jailed over the offence.