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Labour MP charged with perverting the course of justice Labour MP charged with perverting the course of justice
(about 2 hours later)
The Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has appeared in court charged with perverting the course of justice, police have said, giving no further details of the alleged offence. The Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has been charged with two counts of seeking to pervert the course of justice by allegedly blaming someone else for speeding offences committed by herself and her brother, prosectors have said.
The 34-year-old former solicitor and Cambridgeshire councillor has represented Peterborough since the 2017 election. She narrowly defeated the long-serving Conservative MP Stewart Jackson, winning by 607 votes. The 34-year-old former solicitor, who narrowly won the Peterborough constituency at the 2017 election, faced two charges jointly with her younger brother, Festus Onasanya, a 33-year-old singer from Cambridge.
A Cambridgeshire police statement said: “Fiona Oluyinka Onasanya, 34, from Peterborough has been charged with one count of perverting the course of justice. The pair appeared at Westminster magistrates court on 12 July and were due to appear at a court yet to be determined on 13 August. Festus Onasanya also faces a third charge of perverting the course of justice.
“She appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court on 12 July and is due to appear in court again on 13 August.” It has not been determined which court she’ll next appear. Both charges involving the MP, who defeated the long-serving Conservative MP Stewart Jackson by 607 votes at last year’s election, relate to allegedly seeking to blame someone else for speeding offences. Onasanya has not commented.
The force did not give any more details of the case. The Peterborough Telegraph said the offence had taken place in Cambridgeshire. In 2013 the former Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne and his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, were jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice after Pryce took speeding points for him, following a high-profile court case.
The former energy and climate change secretary in the coalition resigned as MP for Eastleigh in Hampshire in February 2013 after pleading guilty. He was later ordered to pay £77,750 towards the costs of bringing the prosecution. Pryce was convicted by a jury and ordered to pay £49,200 costs.
The first count alleges that Onasanya and her brother jointly sought to pervert the course of justice by saying a car ticketed by police for speeding on 24 July last year when she was behind the wheel had been driven by someone else, enabling the then newly elected MP to avoid punishment.
The charge alleges that the MP “falsely informed the investigating authorities that a third party had been the driver of the said vehicle, thereby placing the third party at risk of prosecution and punishment for the said offence and enabling you, as a consequence, to avoid such prosecution and punishment”.
The second charge is the same, but relates to an allegation that the pair sought to blame someone else for a speeding offence committed by Festus Onasanya on 23 August 2017.
The charge faced by Festus Onasanya alone alleges a similar offence, relating to him blaming a third party for a speeding offence on 17 June last year.
Since the first hearing Onasanya has continued to tweet and has spoken in the Commons twice.Since the first hearing Onasanya has continued to tweet and has spoken in the Commons twice.
A Labour spokeswoman said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing case.”A Labour spokeswoman said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing case.”
If Onasanya was to be convicted of an offence – and it is not known whether she will deny the allegations – it could provoke a byelection in a hugely marginal seat.
Under the law, which came into force in 2015 allowing MPs to be recalled, a recall petition could be triggered if a sitting MP has been convicted of an offence and received a jail term of any length, even if it was suspended.
Under earlier rules, MPs were automatically ejected from the Commons if they were jailed for a year or more.
Jackson, who Onasanya beat in 2017, went on to be David Davis’s chief of staff until the then Brexit secretary quit earlier this month. It is not known whether Jackson, a leading Brexiter, would seek a return to the Commons if there was a byelection.
Onasanya, a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, worked in commercial property law as a solicitor, before joining Labour and becoming a councillor, where she was the spokeswoman for children and young people.
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