On June 6th, voters in Peterborough will choose who they want to represent them in Parliament. A by-election was triggered after the first ever successful recall petition against the former MP Fiona Onasanya.

Why is there a by-election?

In December last year, Onasanya was convicted for perverting the course of justice in relation to a 2017 motoring offence. She was expelled from the Labour Party and was later sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, but was released after just under one month.

As she received a prison sentence of less than a year, a recall petition was triggered, taking place after a final appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed. 27.6 percent of electors in the constituency signed the petition and Onasanya was removed from her seat.

Although she would have been able to, Onasanya refused to contest the by-election.

Full list of candidates

15 candidates are running in the by-election. Four parties (Change UK, the Green Party, the Liberal Democrats and Renew) had been in talks to support a joint ‘Remain’ candidate, but negotiations collapsed. Change UK are not running a candidate in the election.

In alphabetical order, the candidates are:

  • Brexit Party: Mike Greene
  • Christian People’s Party: Tom Rodgers
  • Common Good: Dick Rodgers
  • Conservative Party: Paul Bristow
  • English Democrats: Stephen Goldspink
  • Green Party: Joseph Wells
  • Independent: Andrew Moore
  • Independent: Bobby Smith
  • Labour: Lisa Forbes
  • Liberal Democrats: Beki Sellick
  • Monster Raving Loony Party: Alan ‘Howling Lord’ Hope
  • Renew: Peter Ward
  • SDP: Patrick O’Flynn
  • UK EU Party: Pierre Kirk
  • UKIP: John Whitby

What was the result at the last election?

At the 2017 general election, Labour won the seat from the Conservative MP Stewart Jackson with a slim majority of 607 votes. The Liberal Democrats came a distant third, with the Greens fourth.

How did Peterborough vote in the EU referendum?

Peterborough voted strongly to leave the European Union in 2016, with 61 percent voting leave.

In the European elections on May 23rd, over a third of voters in the town voted for the Brexit Party.

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