MP Fiona Onasanya released from prison after serving less than a third of her sentence

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Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya left prison today after serving less than a third of a three-month sentence.

She was whisked out of Bronzefield prison near Ashford, Surrey, at 8.30am in the back of a car driven by a prison official.

The 35-year-old was expelled by the Labour Party after being convicted of lying about a speeding ticket but remains MP for Peterborough.

She will reportedly wear an ankle tag and observe a curfew - and could be back in the Commons tomorrow and able to vote in the latest Brexit debate.

Wearing large sunglasses and dressed in black, she did not stop to speak to reporters as she was driven out of the largest female prison in Europe in a white Vauxhall.

The car belonged to Sodexo Justice Services, the firm that runs Bronzefield.

MP Fiona Onasanya is released from HMP Bronzefield
Alex Lentati

The MP and one-time ally of Jeremy Corbyn, who once dreamed of being Britain’s first black Prime Minister, served 28 days of her sentence after being jailed on January 29.

She is believed to have been freed under an early-release scheme. It is understood that she has continued to collect her £77,000 salary while behind bars.

The ex-Labour whip had been found guilty by an Old Bailey jury in December of perverting the course of justice by spinning a web of lies to avoid a speeding prosecution.

She plotted with her brother Festus, 34, to claim that one of their former tenants had been behind the wheel of her Nissan Micra when it was caught by a speed camera travelling at 41mph in a 30mph zone in the Cambridgeshire village of Thorney in July 2017.

MP Fiona Onasanya with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
PA Archive/PA Images

Detectives discovered that the tenant had been at home in Russia on the day of the offence while former solicitor Onasanya’s phone was logged near the speed camera.

The offence was committed seven weeks into her parliamentary career, having been elected in June 2017.

Onasanya refused to stand down as an MP and sent a message to parliamentary colleagues likening her predicament to those of biblical figures, including Jesus, and asking them to pray for her.

The Attorney General’s Office yesterday rejected a complaint that her sentence was unduly lenient.

It said: “A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

“The threshold is a high one and the test was not met in this case.”

If she had been jailed for a year or more, she would have been forced to give up her seat but the three-month sentence means she will face a by-election only if 10 per cent of her constituents sign a recall petition.

Because Onasanya has appealed against her conviction, this may not happen for several months.

The recall petition cannot be opened until any appeal process has concluded.

Her brother was jailed for 10 months after pleading guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice.

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