Fiona Onasanya, the MP found guilty of lying to avoid a speeding ticket, has become the first parliamentarian to be removed from office after a recall petition, triggering a byelection in her Peterborough seat.
More than one in four registered voters – 27.64% – signed an official notice calling for the removal of Onasanya, according to a spokesperson for Peterborough city council. This was well above the 10% threshold.
Ms Onasanya, 35, was jailed in January for lying about a speeding offence.
She was expelled by Labour after her conviction and had been representing Peterborough as an independent.
Peterborough City Council said 19,261 constituents had signed the petition.
Ms Onasanya will be allowed to stand for re-election.
The council said the signatures represented 27.6% of eligible residents.
The threshold required to remove Ms Onasanya was 10%.
Commons Speaker John Bercow confirmed the recall petition had been successful.
He told MPs:
“Fiona Onasanya is no longer the member for Peterborough and the seat is accordingly vacant.
“She can therefore no longer participate in any parliamentary proceedings as a member of parliament.”
Ms Onasanya, who was jailed for perverting the course of justice, has become the first MP to be removed by the recall process, introduced by David Cameron in 2015.
She was first elected to Parliament as a Labour MP with a slender majority of 607 in 2017.
