Fiona Onasanya MP at court yesterday

Petition officer Gillian Beasley has received official notification from the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow MP, that MP Fiona Onasanya is the subject of a recall petition. The process of running the recall petition is estimated to cost in the region of £500,000 which will be fully funded by the Government. Mrs Beasley said: “I will be giving Fiona Onasanya notice of the recall petition personally so that she is aware the process is now underway. “This is the first time that a recall petition has been held in England and Wales and we have just ten working days to set up the process and make electors aware of their right to sign and how they can do so. We have planned carefully for this recall petition over a number of weeks in order to be ready to run the process efficiently and effectively.” Residents who are parliamentary electors will receive a letter next week about the recall petition and where they can attend to sign. Each elector will be allocated a signing station.There will be ten signing stations where people can attend to sign for the petition. Registered electors will be able to attend and sign a petition slip and place this in a ballot box at the signing place. Signing places will be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9am to 5pm, on Tuesdays from 7am to 5pm and on Thursdays from 9am to 10pm. Residents will have six weeks to sign the recall petition with it closing at 5pm on Wednesday 1 May 2019. The extra two days added on to the six weeks are to take into account Good Friday (April 19) and Easter Monday (April 22) when the signing places will not open. Anyone wishing to sign the petition by post may do so and can apply for a postal/proxy petition at any point during the 6 week period. If 10 per cent of the population, approximately 7,000 people, sign the petition, the MP would lose her seat and a by-election will be triggered. No updates on how many people have signed the petition can be given whilst the process is ongoing. The result will be sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons on Wednesday 1 May 2019 and we must then await their reply before publishing.