Date set for Carmichael legal hearing

A petition seeking to overturn the election of Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael will be heard in September.

The case was called again at the Court of Session this morning after the “by order” case, before Lady Paton, was adjourned last Thursday. She confirmed today that the Election Court will sit on September 7 and 8 in Edinburgh.

The judge made the decision after being addressed by QCs from both Mr Carmichael and representatives from the campaign group The People Versus Carmichael.

The campaign was launched after Mr Carmichael admitted, on May 22, that he was responsible for leaking a memo about Nicola Sturgeon’s conversation with the French Ambassador that led to a Daily Telegraph article claiming the First Minister would prefer UK Conservative leader David Cameron remain as Prime Minister.

The electoral petition 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. This denial was later found to be untrue by a cabinet office investigation into the matter.

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