Festus Onasanya

Fiona Oluyinka Onasanya (born 23 August 1983) is a former British Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) who was removed from that role as a result of a criminal conviction.

Onasanya was elected as Labour Cambridgeshire County Councillor for King's Hedges in Cambridge in 2013 and became deputy leader of the Labour group on the council.

She was also the local party's spokeswoman for children and young people and sat on the council's Joint Consultative Committee for teachers.

Onasanya moved to Peterborough in 2014.

Following her admission as a solicitor in November 2015, she worked at Howes Percival, then DC Law, specialising in commercial property law.

She was elected in the 2017 United Kingdom general election for the constituency of Peterborough, which she represented from 8 June 2017 to 1 May 2019.

In 2017 she unsuccessfully sought the nomination to be Labour's candidate for Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

For the 2017 general election, Onasanya was selected by the Labour Party to stand in the constituency of Peterborough, which had been held since 2005 by Stewart Jackson, a Conservative.

Onasanya defeated Jackson with a majority of 607 votes and a 2.7% swing to Labour.

In July 2017, she said that she wished to be Britain's first black prime minister.

Onasanya was appointed as a Labour whip and as a parliamentary private secretary to Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith.

She attracted some notice when she quoted lyrics from Man's Not Hot, a viral song, during a budget debate in November 2017.

She voted remain in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum and subsequently voiced support for a second vote on Brexit, either by means of a second referendum or a general election.

The first charge alleged that she was driving the vehicle during a speeding incident on 24 July 2017 but that, with her brother Festus Onasanya, she had claimed that someone else was driving.

The second charge concerned a speeding incident on 23 August 2017 when Festus is alleged to have been the one driving.

Her brother was charged with three counts, two relating to the same incidents as his sister.

Onasanya was found guilty on 19 December 2018 of perverting the course of justice for lying to police to avoid being prosecuted for speeding.

She unsuccessfully sought to secure permission to appeal against the conviction.

Her expulsion from the Labour Party, effective in December 2018, was announced in January 2019.

In July 2018, Onasanya was charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to two speeding incidents which occurred in 2017.

She appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 12 July 2018.

Onasanya said on 27 July 2018 that she "strongly refutes any suggestions that I have broken the law".

On 13 August 2018 at the Old Bailey, she pleaded not guilty to the one charge against her, relating to an alleged offence in Thorney, Cambridgeshire, in July 2017.

Her trial date was set for 12 November 2018.

A week before he was due to face trial with his sister, Festus Onasanya admitted three counts of perverting the course of justice.

On 29 January 2019 she was sentenced to three months in prison.

She was removed from office on 1 May 2019 after a successful recall petition, automatically triggered in cases of a custodial sentence of a year or less, under the Recall of MPs Act 2015.

This prompted a by-election, making her the first MP to lose their seat through the recall process.

Onasanya was born in Cambridge and is of Nigerian ancestry.

Her parents, Frank and Paulina Onasanya, separated when she was three and she lived with her mother and younger brother.

Onasanya was educated at Netherhall School and studied law at the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Law.

She worked at the solicitors Nockolds, then Eversheds.

After being found guilty of perverting the course of justice, it was announced in January 2019 that she had been expelled from the Labour Party in December 2018.

On 12 March 2019, Onasanya voted against the Government's Brexit withdrawal agreement, leading to its defeat in the second "meaningful vote".

This was reported to be her first vote in the House of Commons since her release from prison and the first occasion that an MP voted while wearing an electronic tag.

On 4 April, Onasanya voted to legally require the Prime Minister to seek an extension of Article 50 from the European Union.

The bill passed by just one vote and Onasanya's critical role was highlighted by the media.

On 27 March 2019, Onasanya was among the 21 MPs who voted against improved LGBT education in schools.

In late April, Onasanya made her only speech in the Commons during the period between her release from prison and losing her seat as a result of the successful recall petition.

During her two-minute intervention, she disputed the government's assertion that austerity was coming to an end.