Fiona Onasanya, a former Labour MP jailed for lying about a speeding offence, was among 21 politicians to vote against a bill to strengthen LGBT education in schools.
A huge majority of MPs – 538 – approved the motion to update the government’s Relationships Education bill for the first time in 19 years on Wednesday.
The legislation, which won cross-party support, was revised to ensure schoolchildren would be taught about all kinds of romantic relationships and family models, as well as equality issues.
If the bill passes through the House of Lords, the curriculum will change to provide primary-age pupils with “age appropriate” relationships education and secondary school students with updated relationships and sex education.
Onasanya justified her decision by saying in a tweet: “If schools are to determine the content of sex education at primary school (Recommended), I do feel that parents must be provided with detail of how schools plan/propose to tailor these programmes and the content.”
The Peterborough MP was released from prison in February after serving one month of a three-month sentence for perverting the course of justice.
Onasanya was convicted of lying about a speeding charge after her car was clocked speeding at 41mph in a 30mph zone in 2017.
Following her conviction, she was expelled from the Labour Party, but vowed to stay in parliament as an independent and fight the next election – even going as far as to release an appeal for support from the people of Peterborough on Facebook.
Only one Labour MP – John Spellar – voted against Wednesday’s motion, attracting the ire of some party members.
Among the 12 Tory MPs against the motion was Christopher Chope, who has previously attracted heavy criticism for filibustering votes on protecting potential victims of FGM and a bill aimed at making up-skirting a criminal offence.
Shipley MP Philip Davies, who has consistently voted against equality legislation benefitting women and LGBT people, joined his Conservative colleague in the no lobby.
Seven Democratic Unionist Party parliamentarians also voted against the government.
The full list of MPs who refused to support the bill are:
Christopher Chope
Philip Davies
Charlie Elphicke
Marcus Fysh
James Gray
Philip Hollobone
Ranil Jayawardena
Edward Leigh
Julian Lewis
Matthew Offord
Martin Vickers
Gregory Campbell
Nigel Dodds
Jeffrey Donaldson
Paul Girvan
Gavin Robinson
Jim Shannon
Sammy Wilson
Fiona Onasanya
John Spellar