The Government should “urgently” review the legal mechanisms available to Parliament to expel convicted MPs in light of the Fiona Onasanya scandal, the former head of the Commons standards watchdog has said.

Sir Kevin Barron, the former chairman of the committee on standards, has called on ministers to consider tightening legislation so that MPs who receive a prison sentence lasting more than 10 days should face expulsion from Parliament.

The senior Labour figure said it was "absurd" that MPs can only be automatically ousted from Parliament after receiving a year-long prison sentence, as set out in The Representation of the People Act 1981.

In contrast, MPs who are banned from the Commons for just 10 days can be subject to a recall petition, a poll which will trigger a by-election if 10 percent of their constituents sign it.

His intervention came after Ian Lavery, the Labour Party chairman, confirmed that Ms Onasanya, the disgraced MP for Peterborough, had been permanently expelled from the party after she was convicted of perverting the course of justice by lying to police to avoid a speeding charge.