A LABOUR MP faces a possible jail term after she was convicted of lying to police to avoid a speeding charge.
Peterborough MP Fiona Onasanya was accused of colluding with her brother Festus to falsely claim his acquaintance, Aleks Antipow, was driving her Nissan Micra when it was clocked travelling at 41mph in a 30mph zone.
The Old Bailey heard evidence she was texting as well as speeding.
Prosecutor David Jeremy QC had told a jury the MP went on to lie ‘persistently and deliberately’ to avoid prosecution.
Festus, 34, from Cambridge, had pleaded guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice over speeding, including the incident on July 24 last year, but his sister, 35, denied a single count of perverting the course of justice. She was yesterday found guilty following a retrial at the Old Bailey.
After the verdict, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith warned the siblings could be jailed when they are sentenced at a later date.
‘This is not going to be easy, not to give any indication one way or the other,’ the judge said.
Onasanya, a solicitor who was elected with a majority of 607 in June 2017, had the whip suspended by Labour, which urged her to resign.
It said her behaviour ‘falls well below what is expected of politicians’.
