Fiona Onasanya, the former Labour politician convicted of perverting the course of justice, has been ousted as the MP for Peterborough, after the required number of constituents signed a recall petition to remove her from office. A by-election will now be fought in the constituency on 6 June.
For Onasanya to be removed 6,967 people had to sign the recall petition – ten per cent of all eligible voters in the constituency. In the end that threshold was passed by a considerable margin, with 19,261 people heading to the ten ‘signing places’ across the constituency to call for her to go. This is the first time that this mechanism has been used to remove an MP since the laws were introduced in 2016.
The petition had been triggered after Onasanya failed to appeal her conviction for perverting the course of justice, for lying to police about speeding.
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