An MP has become the first female Member of Parliament to be jailed after she was sentenced for lying to police to avoid a speeding ticket. Disgraced Fiona Onasanya, Labour MP for Peterborough, was caught driving at 41mph in a 30mph zone in her constituency. However, she went on to collude with her brother Festus to avoid the speeding ticket, naming Aleks Antipow – an acquaintance of Festus – as the driver.
However, he was hundreds of miles away at the time, visiting his parents in Russia. Fiona Onasanya, 35, was jailed for three months while her brother was given a 10-month sentence by judge Mr Justice Stuart-Smith.
He said: ‘It’s a tragedy that you have found yourselves here and in this predicament but it’s a tragedy that you have brought on yourselves.’ He added: ‘If she wasn’t an MP or wasn’t in a position of responsibility, she would go inside. It’s not one law for those in a position of power, and another for those who are not.’ Festus, 34, from Cambridge, pleaded guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice over speeding, including for the July 24 incident.
In the wake of the guilty verdict, Onasanya was expelled from the Labour Party and has launched an appeal against her conviction. Onasanya took the marginal seat from the Tories with a majority of just 607 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 per cent of the electorate in the Cambridgeshire seat.
