British-Nigerian 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, 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. 

 

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.

 

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. 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.