Carmichael court hearing under way

The legal challenge to the election of Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael gets under way in Edinburgh this morning, and will be broadcast live on television and online.

The case is to be heard by judges Lady Paton and Lord Matthews in the Election Court, which will sit for the first time in Scotland since 1965.

The legal challenge was lodged by a group of constituents in Orkney, who want the General Election result overturned, after Mr Carmichael, who was Scottish Secretary at the time, admitted he was responsible for a leaked memo regarding Nicola Sturgeon’s conversation with the French ambassador to the UK.

The leak led to a Daily Telegraph article claiming that Scotland’s First Minister told the ambassador she would have preferred that David Cameron remain in Downing Street.

Mr Carmichael denied any knowledge of the leak until after the election.

He later admitted that the account of the conversation in the leaked memo was incorrect.

The legal case claims that Mr Carmichael’s re-election contravened the Representation of the People Act 1983, because voters were unaware of his involvement in the pre-election leak, as he had denied any knowledge of it.

It is being pursued by four Orkney constituents — Timothy Morrison, Euphemie Matheson, Fiona Grahame and Carolyn Welling.

However, Mr Carmichael claims there was no breach of section 106 of the Act, as set out by the petition, and that he “did not make a false statement of fact in relation to the personal character or conduct of a candidate, before or during an election, for the purpose of affecting the return of any candidate at the election.”