Former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has been allowed to leave prison after serving a month of her three-month sentence for lying about a speeding charge.

The Peterborough MP, who was expelled by Labour after being convicted, was released from HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Surrey, on Tuesday morning.

The disgraced politician was photographed sat in the back of a white Vauxhall as she left the prison.

Image: Fiona Onasanya was found guilty of perverting the course of justice

It comes after the attorney general's office rejected a complaint that Onasanya's sentence was too lenient.

The 35-year-old has vowed to continue to sit in the House of Commons as an independent MP, despite calls for her to resign.


Onasanya, who is appealing against her conviction, continued to receive her £77,379 salary while in prison.

She can return to parliament to take part in upcoming Brexit votes following her release.

Onasanya will almost certainly be wearing an electronic tag as part of strict conditions if she attends the debate and votes on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that police are investigating reports of emails and letters with a "disgusting racial element" directed at her on the day she was jailed.

Police in Cambridgeshire and South Yorkshire have confirmed they are looking into "reports of malicious communications" sent on 29 January.

The MP's communications officer Matt Turner said in a statement: "Many of these emails and letters have a disgusting racial element to them.

"This despicable and threatening behaviour is unacceptable and we welcome an investigation."

By receiving a jail sentence of less than 12 months, Onasanya avoided being automatically removed as an MP under parliamentary rules.

However, she could be forced out if more than 10% of voters in her constituency sign a recall petition, which would trigger a by-election in her Peterborough seat.

Onasanya was sentenced after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

A judge told her she had "let down not just yourself but your profession and your parliament".

Jurors at her Old Bailey trial heard she colluded with her brother Festus after her car was recorded doing 41mph in a 30mph zone in Thorney, a village near Peterborough, in July 2017 - just weeks after she was elected to parliament.

The court heard that a Notice of Intended Prosecution was sent back naming the driver of the vehicle as Aleks Antipow, an acquaintance of her brother, who was in Russia visiting his parents at the time.

Festus Onasanya was given a jail sentence of 10 months after he pleaded guilty to three counts of perverting the course of justice over speeding, including the 24 July incident.