A sitting Labour MP was urged to resign on Wednesday after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice by lying about speeding points.
Fiona Onasanya, who represents Peterborough, Cambs, said her brother, Festus Onasanya, was behind the wheel of her Nissan Micra when it was caught travelling at 41mph in a 30mph zone in July 2017.
The 35-year-old denied she had perverted the course of justice despite her brother pleading guilty to that charge, as well as two similar counts, earlier this year.
But a jury in a re-trial at London’s Old Bailey disbelieved her version of events and found her guilty.
Her conviction looked likely to trigger a by-election in the marginal constituency of Peterborough, where Onasanya beat sitting Tory MP Stewart Jackson by just 607 votes – just weeks before her car was caught speeding.
During the re-trial, Onasanya said evidence her mobile phone was in use in the vicinity of the speed camera was proof she could not have been driving.
“I don’t use my phone when driving,” she told the court. “I would have had to have been a passenger.”
Sentencing guidelines show perverting the course of justice carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a fine. The Crown Prosecution Service recommends sentencing of between four and 36 months in prison.
Onasanya, who worked as a solicitor before being elected in 2017, will be sentenced alongside her brother on a date yet to be determined.
She resigned as a Labour whip last month, and a party spokesperson responded to her conviction on Wednesday by saying she should now resign as an MP.
The spokesperson said: “The Labour Party is deeply disappointed in Fiona Onasanya’s behaviour. It falls well below what is expected of politicians.
“She should now resign.
“Fiona Onasanya is being administratively suspended from the Labour Party and therefore the whip with immediate effect.”