Ex-Labour MP Fiona Onasanya was released from prison this morning

FREE now SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Make the most of your money by signing up to our newsletter fornow We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Onasanya was jailed on January 29 for perverting the course of justice after lying to police to avoid a speeding fine and was eventually kicked out of the Labour Party. However the 35-year-old Peterborough MP has continued to pick up her £77,000 salary as an independent MP behind bars at HMP Bronzefield from where she was released this morning. The solicitor has refused to stand down and trigger a by-election despite her Old Bailey conviction less than four weeks ago.

Onasanya was freed under the early-release scheme after the Attorney General confirmed her sentence was not unduly lenient meaning she could make a return to Parliament while wearing an electronic tag as early as tomorrow. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office told the Daily Mail: “After careful consideration, the Solicitor General has concluded that he could not refer this case to the Court of Appeal. “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.” A by-election would have automatically been triggered if she was jailed for a year or more but the three-month sentence meant she would have faced another vote only if 10 percent of her constituents had signed a recall petition. Tomorrow, MPs are voting on a series of amendments, including plans to delay Brexit to avoid no-deal and Labour’s proposal for a softer EU exit, all of which Onasanya would be eligible to vote on.

Disgraced ex-Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has been freed after serving just 28 days of three-month term

Onasanya denied the charge and is appealing her conviction. She was found guilty last month of colluding with her brother Festus Onasanya to cover up her speeding offence Mr Onasanya, 34, admitted three counts of perverting the course of justice just a week before the pair were due to stand trial. During her trial, jurors heard how Onasanya claimed her former lodger Aleks Antipow was driving her purple Nissan Micra when it was clocked travelling at 41mph in a 30mph zone on July 24 last year. However it was revealed Mr Antipow was actually visiting his family in Russia and could not possibly have been at the wheel. The court also heard how Onasanya had a clean driving licence at the time and would only have been punished by six points and a fine had she admitted to being the driver of the car when she received the notice of intended prosecution. Sentencing Onasanya, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said her “self-inflicted” lie to police had been “disastrous” adding she had let down her entire party, profession and Parliament as well as “those who look to you for inspiration.”

Onasanya was kicked out of the Labour Party over the case

He also highlighted Onasanya’s “exemplary character” but slammed her for not “accepting the correctness of the conviction”. After being found guilty, Onasanya even compared herself to Jesus in a delusional text message sent to a group of Labour MPs. According to The Times, she defiantly wrote: “What I do know is that I am in good biblical company along with Joseph, Moses, Daniel and his three Hebrew friends who were each found guilty by the courts of their day. “While God did not save them from a guilty verdict he did save them in it and ensured that their greatest days of impact were on the other side of a guilty verdict. “Of course this is equally true of Christ who was accused and convicted by the courts of his day and yet this was not his end but rather the beginning of the next chapter in his story.”

She claimed a former lodger was behind the wheel of her car when clocked at 41mph in a 30mph zone