DISGRACED Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael has engaged a London lawyer to fight the legal bid to have his General Election result overturned.
Piers Coleman, a partner in the London office of K&L Gates, is primarily a commercial real estate lawyer and lists election law as a sideline.
However, he previously acted for LibDem candidate Elwyn Watkins in the first case of its type in nearly a century, which resulted in a by-election being held in 2010 in Oldham East and Saddleworth.
On that occasion the 2010 election result was declared void after an election court ruled that Labour’s Phil Woolas knowingly made false statements attacking Watkins’s personal character.
The by-election resulted in Labour’s Debbie Abrahams increasing her party’s majority over the LibDems.
It is understood that Carmichael has not yet been formally served with the petition that lawyers representing The People Versus Carmichael lodged at the Court of Session in Edinburgh last week. Once he formally receives the document, he has a week to respond before the court sets a date for a hearing, or trial.
The funding bid set up by the pressure group has, in the meantime, comfortably passed the £50,000 mark.
Organisers had set a target of £60,000, but Tim Morrison, from the group, said they were hugely excited to pass the £50,000 milestone.
“No one has funded this kind of case by a public appeal before, but then no one has brought this kind of case in 50 years. It is all new ground,” he said.
“The money matters hugely because it enables us, as individuals to challenge Mr Carmichael.
“But if we had got all the money from a political party it would mean a lot less. What matters is the sheer number of people who have signed up, 3,361 of them.
“People have been giving what they can and this means that the campaign belongs to everyone who has contributed.”
Morrison added: “Mr Carmichael must come to court unless he resigns. That is the only choice left open to him, there is no other.
“That is what we wanted, to hold him accountable.”
As the row continued to rage, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited Orkney to announce a consultation on greater autonomy for the Highlands and Islands.
She said she was not on Orkney to “talk about Alistair Carmichael”, but added: “When it came to light that he had leaked the document that was an attempt to smear my reputation, he apologised to me and I accepted his apology.
“The point I made though is that I think the people who were really wronged in this episode were Alistair Carmichael’s constituents, because he said during an election campaign that he had nothing to do with that so he was less than honest with his electorate during an election campaign, and I thought it was to them that he owed an apology.”
Dr Heather Green, of Aberdeen University’s School of Law has researched election law.
She said there were two potential routes the petitioners could take – to address the leak, or tackle the subsequent lie.
Green added: “In either event, they will need to meet the standard of proof required to prove the commission of election offences alleged in the course of petition proceedings.”
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