Fiona Onasanya facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fiona Onasanya
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Official portrait, 2017
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| Opposition Whip | |
| In office 18 January 2018 – 20 December 2018 |
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| Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Succeeded by | Bambos Charalambous |
| Member of Parliament for Peterborough |
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| In office 8 June 2017 – 1 May 2019 |
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| Preceded by | Stewart Jackson |
| Succeeded by | Lisa Forbes |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Fiona Oluyinka Onasanya
23 August 1983 Cambridge, England |
| Political party | Labour (until 2018) Independent (since 2018) |
| Education | University of Hertfordshire College of Law |
Fiona Oluyinka Onasanya (/ˌɒnəˈsænjə/; born 23 August 1983) is a former British Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) who was removed from that role as a result of a criminal conviction. She was elected in the 2017 United Kingdom general election for the constituency of Peterborough, which she represented from 8 June 2017 to 1 May 2019.
Onasanya was found guilty on 19 December 2018 of perverting the course of justice for lying to police to avoid being prosecuted for speeding. She unsuccessfully sought to secure permission to appeal against the conviction. Her expulsion from the Labour Party, effective in December 2018, was announced in January 2019. On 29 January 2019 she was sentenced to three months in prison. She was removed from office on 1 May 2019 after a successful recall petition, automatically triggered in cases of a custodial sentence of a year or less, under the Recall of MPs Act 2015. This prompted a by-election, making her the first MP to lose their seat through the recall process.
Early life and career
Onasanya was born in Cambridge and is of Nigerian ancestry. Her parents, Frank and Paulina Onasanya, separated when she was three and she lived with her mother and younger brother. Onasanya was educated at Netherhall School and studied law at the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Law. She worked at the solicitors Nockolds, then Eversheds. Following her admission as a solicitor in November 2015, she worked at Howes Percival, then DC Law, specialising in commercial property law.
Onasanya was elected as Labour Cambridgeshire County Councillor for King's Hedges in Cambridge in 2013 and became deputy leader of the Labour group on the council. She was also the local party's spokeswoman for children and young people and sat on the council's Joint Consultative Committee for teachers. In 2017 she unsuccessfully sought the nomination to be Labour's candidate for Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Onasanya moved to Peterborough in 2014.
Parliamentary career
For the 2017 general election, Onasanya was selected by the Labour Party to stand in the constituency of Peterborough, which had been held since 2005 by Stewart Jackson, a Conservative. Onasanya defeated Jackson with a majority of 607 votes and a 2.7% swing to Labour. In July 2017, she said that she wished to be Britain's first black prime minister.
Onasanya was appointed as a Labour whip and as a parliamentary private secretary to Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith. She attracted some notice when she quoted lyrics from Man's Not Hot, a viral song, during a budget debate in November 2017. She voted remain in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum and subsequently voiced support for a second vote on Brexit, either by means of a second referendum or a general election.
After being found guilty of perverting the course of justice, it was announced in January 2019 that she had been expelled from the Labour Party in December 2018.
On 12 March 2019, Onasanya voted against the Government's Brexit withdrawal agreement, leading to its defeat in the second "meaningful vote". This was reported to be her first vote in the House of Commons since her release from prison and the first occasion that an MP voted while wearing an electronic tag. On 4 April, Onasanya voted to legally require the Prime Minister to seek an extension of Article 50 from the European Union. The bill passed by just one vote and Onasanya's critical role was highlighted by the media.
On 27 March 2019, Onasanya was among the 21 MPs who voted against improved LGBT education in schools.
In late April, Onasanya made her only speech in the Commons during the period between her release from prison and losing her seat as a result of the successful recall petition. During her two-minute intervention, she disputed the government's assertion that austerity was coming to an end.
Personal life
Onasanya lives in Paston, Peterborough, and attends iCAN Community Church in East London. She is a member of Christians on the Left (formerly the Christian Socialist Movement). It has been claimed that her religious beliefs partly stem from being involved in a road traffic collision as a child, when, although Onasanya was badly injured, her mother took her home and prayed rather than taking her to hospital.
She is a patron of Women Worldwide Advocating Freedom and Equality and was a trustee of East Hertfordshire YMCA, which closed in June 2018.
Onasanya stated during her trial, in November 2018, that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In 2020 she self-published a memoir, Snakes & Adders.
In June 2020, Onasanya attracted national and international attention by accusing Kellogg's of racism for using a monkey as the mascot of their Coco Pops cereal.
See also
- Chris Davies – former MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, the second MP to have faced a recall petition under the terms of the Recall of MPs Act 2015, and who was defeated in the subsequent by-election held in August 2019.
- Chris Huhne – resigned as a Member of Parliament in 2013 when he pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice over a speeding case in 2003, in relation to the matter of who was driving.
