A TRUST at the centre of controversy over its award of £34,000 to lying MP Alistair Carmichael to help with his legal fees has increased the award to £50,000.
The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (JRRT) sparked fury this week with its original award to the MP for help with a £150,000 legal bill over the Frenchgate memo court action.
Its sister organisation – the better known Joseph Rowntree Foundation – immediately sought to distance itself from the JRRT, stressing that they were entirely different bodies.
Between last night and this morning the original award shown on the JRRT website has been raised to £50,000.
The trust is run by six directors, four of whom have Liberal Democrat links, but it said it had made grants to individuals and organisations “within all three major parties”.
Four of Carmichael’s Orkney constituents took him to court for lying about his role in leaking a memo aimed at damaging Nicola Sturgeon before last year’s General Election.
JRRT said the award – the biggest it has made this year – was given “to uphold existing case law about the circumstances in which a legitimately elected MP can be unseated”.
Carmichael, the only LibDem MP in Scotland, tried to win damages from the four after accepting in evidence that his own position was dishonest.
Lady Paton and Lord Matthews said he told a “blatant lie” during a television interview about the leaked memo, and rejected his case for costs.
Ian Blackford, the SNP MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, told The National the award was “extraordinary.”
He said: “It has been clearly shown that the man has been caught lying and when you hear stories like this it makes you wonder about integrity, and you wonder why the JRRT is getting involved in this. It really is quite extraordinary.”
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