News / Judges to decide MP’s fate as hearing concludes
THE HEARING into a legal challenge against Alistair Carmichael’s election concluded on its third day with the challengers’ lawyer suggesting he told an “Homeric catalogue of untruths”.
Jonathan Mitchell QC, representing the ‘Orkney Four’ constituents, warned Election Court judges in Edinburgh to take the MP’s evidence with “at very best, extreme caution”.
But the MP’s own defence lawyer Roddy Dunlop QC said it would be “unfair” to “end a man’s political career on the basis of something blurted out on a TV interview”.
Carmichael was not in court on the third and final day of the hearing. Lady Paton and Lord Matthews will now deliberate before reporting their findings to the House of Commons “in due course”.
The Liberal Democrat politician denies misleading voters in Orkney and Shetland by lying about his role in leaking a memo claiming Nicola Sturgeon secretly wanted David Cameron to remain as prime minister.
The four Orkney constituents who brought the case – Timothy Morrison, Phaemie Matheson, Carolyn Welling and Fiona Graham – have raised nearly £130,000 in an online crowdfunder.
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Following the hearing they spoke to the media. Standing in the rain outside the Court of Session in Edinburgh’s Lawnmarket, Morrison said they were “relieved that we can now speak about it”.
“The judges have taken it very very seriously indeed,” he said. “While we can’t predict what’s going to happen, neither can Mr Carmichael.
“Mr Carmichael acknowledged in court that he misled the Cabinet Office inquiry. That’s a huge statement for a politician to make. People were surprised and shocked to find that their MP would behave like that.”
Giving evidence earlier this week, Carmichael said he believed the contents of the memo were “politically explosive” and in the public interest, so he authorized his special adviser Euan Roddin to leak it.
He insisted he did so for political reasons, and not to save his seat.
It wasn’t until 12 May that the former Scottish secretary of state admitted authorising the leak – five days after he was re-elected with an 817 majority.
The case centres on the petitioners’ assertion that Carmichael’s conduct was personal and whether it was intended to affect May’s general election result. If Lady Paton and Lord Matthews uphold the allegations, Carmichael will lose his seat and a by-election will be called in Orkney and Shetland.
In his closing submission, QC Mitchell said three of the witnesses – Fiona Graham, MSP Tavish Scott and professor John Curtice, who all spoke earlier in the week – could be trusted in their evidence.
But, he said, Carmichael could not. Referring to a Channel 4 News interview where he denied knowledge of the memo, Mitchell said the MP told an “Homeric catalogue of untruths”.
“It’s a matter that strikes at the very root of his honesty and integrity as a person,” QC Mitchell said. “We have seen the disgraceful way in which he allowed his special adviser and others to be treated.
“It was a frolic of his own. It was a secret. He had a private agenda.”
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Carmichael’s QC Dunlop responded: “When the court comes to consider Mr Carmichael’s evidence it should hold that Mr Mitchell is unfair in his attack.
“Mr Carmichael gave his evidence quite plainly and in a candid manner. He made a number of candid admissions which it can only be said were against his interests.”
He said the MP weathered a “barrage of criticism with dignity and restraint”. QC Dunlop added: “What he was doing was in part to protect Mr Roddin and in part to protect the interests of his party. He wanted to keep the focus on what he thought was the politically explosive story contained within the memo.”
The QC said the court should disregard evidence heard about anything beyond the TV interview.
He said: “The basis of the petition is solely the Channel 4 News interview. To allow consideration of other matters would be to flout the act itself.
“I remind the court of the need to be strict with the petition. A man is not to be convicted on an ambiguity.
“To end a man’s political career on the basis of something blurted out on a TV interview would be disproportionate.”
Lady Paton and Lord Matthews closed proceedings late on Wednesday afternoon by thanking both sides for their submissions.
‘That would have been democracy’
Afterwards, petitioner Tim Morrison took questions from the media. Asked whether the crowdfunding effort had been worthwhile, he replied: “Nobody’s done this before, at least not in living memory.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without nearly 7000 people who put real money into making this happen. Of course it’s worthwhile, because democracy is worthwhile. That’s what this is about.”
Q: Are you happy that your case is clearly an arguable case? People were saying at the beginning this will never fly
Morrison: “Well, I’m tempted not to think about Michael White of the Guardian and smile. Because he said constituents would have forgotten about this within two months. And we’ve shown that yes our case is certainly arguable.”
Q: Is your MP more damaged as a result of the admissions that he’s given in court over two days, particularly in relation to misleading the Cabinet Office inquiry into the leak?
Morrison: “Mr Carmichael’s acknowledged in court that he misled the Cabinet Office inquiry. That’s a huge statement for a politician to make. At the beginning people were saying he mis-spoke or he just made a mistake and that it was nothing very serious. That’s been blown out of the water.”
Q: What are you hoping this will achieve?
Morrison: “Ultimately what we hope it will achieve is a by-election in Orkney and Shetland. That’s it. We’ve got no purpose beyond that. We would hope that we will have an awful lot of interesting candidates including the Monster Raving Looney Party. That’s what we want, is to have a by-election.
“We don’t know if Mr Carmichael had resigned at the very beginning and stood again, if he’d said this is what I did and I made a mistake, then he might well have been elected. That would have been absolutely fine. That would have been democracy.”
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