Carmichael court hearing resumes

September 8, 2015 at 9:32 am

The legal challenge to the election of Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael is due to resume this morning, and, once again, will be broadcast live, by STV, on television and online.

The case, which is in its second day, is being heard by judges Lady Paton and Lord Matthews in the Election Court, which is sitting 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.

Yesterday saw the QC for Mr Carmichael, Roddy Dunlop, say that the case against the MP should be dismissed.

Acknowledging that Mr Carmichael’s pre-election claim that he was unaware of the leak was “not correct”, Mr Dunlop called for a “strict interpretation” of the 1983 Representation of the People Act, stating that Mr Carmichael’s statement could not be both personal and political.

The section of the Act in question — section 106 — makes it a criminal offence to release a “false statement” about the character and conduct of an election candidate.

Mr Dunlop pointed out that the legislation was to stop political opponents from attacking opponent’s personal conduct and not, he said, political rows.

He said: “In my submission to court it is as clear as can be that what was said related to political conduct.”

But closing proceedings at the end of the first day, Jonathan Mitchell QC, counsel for the Orkney constituents, said the “only reasonable inference” from Carmichael’s lie was to ensure his re-election.