News / Local protest against Carmichael to continue
A NEWLY formed group seeking to force Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael to resign and stand for re-election is organising another protest in Lerwick on Saturday.
It comes as pressure on the embattled Liberal Democrat intensified on several different levels over his conduct in leaking a memo about Nicola Sturgeon and then lying about it.
– The parliamentary standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson has received a number of complaints about Carmichael’s conduct and is considering whether to launch a formal investigation;
– An online Crowdfunding effort to legally challenge the constituency’s election result, initiated in Kirkwall, had raised £16,938 in donations from 1,053 people by teatime on Tuesday. Any challenge must be lodged by Friday – three weeks after the election took place.
– Police Scotland has confirmed it has received a compliant from someone in Wishaw and “inquiries are ongoing to establish if there is criminality” involved;
Meanwhile the Cabinet Office is refusing to provide any more detail about how it examined the matter, including why it took seven weeks from the inquiry’s launch on 4 April for a conclusion to be reached.
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman told Shetland News the department would not “give a running commentary” and did not comment on “internal processes”, but claimed the inquiry was “done as quickly as possible”.
The spokeswoman said assertions that the investigation had cost £1.4 million were totally inaccurate, and that the only cost had been the staff time for Cabinet Office employees.
The eight-strong local group formed to seek a by-election, called ‘We the People of Shetland’, includes SNP and Green party members – but says it is hoping to widen the campaign to incorporate other local political parties including the Lib Dems.
Logan Nicolson, a school teacher in Brae, helped organise last weekend’s demonstration, attended by around 50 people. He says it is wrong that local people went into ballot booths not knowing Carmichael’s role in leaking the memo and then lying about it.
“There is a high probability that if we should have a by-election Alistair will still win,” Nicolson said. “And if that is how people vote, we don’t have a problem with that. But we want people to have the chance to have their democratic say in the full possession of the facts.
“We are going to write a letter to all political parties asking them to back our call for a by-election so that this issue can be dealt with and put to bed and the community can move on.”
Nicolson added that the group was putting together an open letter to circulate locally.
It is also calling on the community to avoid protesting at Carmichael’s planned constituency surgery on Thursday afternoon so as not to deter individuals requiring their MP’s help on constituency matters from attending.
But the local Labour party has rejected calls for a by-election, while the Conservatives have not considered the question but its chairman Maurice Mullay said he would be “surprised if there was an appetite” for a re-run so soon after 7 May.
Although Scottish leader Willie Rennie has offered his backing to Carmichael, a defence of the MP of 14 years from local Lib Dem members has been conspicuous by its absence.
Former chairman Theo Smith, who said at the weekend that he was “very disappointed with the situation”, said the local party was due to meet on Tuesday night and would then issue a statement on Wednesday.
A statement on behalf of the Shetland Labour Party, issued by interim secretary Gordon Thomson, criticised Carmichael’s behaviour – but resisted calls for his resignation.
“In the white heat of an election campaign, he failed to use his proper, considered judgement and acted in a way that has proved costly to his own personal reputation and integrity,” the statement read.
“However, this must be put into balance against his fine record as a constituency MP and, particularly, as someone who has shown such great commitment to human rights, not just locally but in a global context.”
Local Labour members “deplore the nature of the current SNP campaign against him”, describing the street demonstration and organised petitions as “akin to the reinvention of the fine old Scottish tradition of a witch-hunt”.
“We only wish that their zeal for truth and honesty was matched when they considered the words and actions of their own representatives, some of whom have been a shade less than truthful in the past.
“Instead of this perpetual and excitable tub-thumping, perhaps a time for calm and considered judgement is called for, something which neither of our opponents have been especially noted for in the past.”
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