SCOTTISH Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has said he will discuss the future of the party’s only Scottish MP with him after the Scottish Parliament election in May.
Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael is facing a legal bill of up to £150,000 after judges threw out his case for costs in the Frenchgate case.
Four of his constituents Tim Morrison, Fiona Grahame, Cary Welling and Phaemie Matheson – known as the Orkney Four – brought a landmark case against him last year at a rare sitting of an Election Court in Edinburgh.
They raised the action over Carmichael’s leaking and then lying about a memo that wrongly claimed Nicola Sturgeon wanted the Tories to remain in power after May’s General Election.
Lady Paton and Lord Matthews found that Carmichael had told a “blatant lie” when he said in a TV interview that he had been unaware of the memo until he was asked about it by a journalist.
Rennie was asked on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland if he was happy for self-confessed liar Carmichael, who is also Rennie’s deputy, to be a candidate in any future election given that the party had portrayed itself as whiter than white.
He said: “Alistair will make his own mind up in due course. I’ve got an election campaign to fight in a few weeks’ time, I will be discussing Alistair’s future with Alistair at some point after that.
“The [Westminster] election is four years away. I’m trying to get on and grow the number of Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament in May.
“I will have a discussion with Alistair later.”
Rennie’s comments came after LibDem leader Tim Farron refused to say if he had put his hand in his own pocket to help Carmichael with his legal bill.
He was asked the question three times by The National’s sister paper The Sunday Herald, and declined to give a direct response.
He was then asked if the party would be making a contribution, and replied: “I’m not sure if that’s a matter for record, or not.”
The Orkney Four financed the case through a crowdfunding appeal which has raised more than £210,000. A similar campaign for Carmichael has raised £15,000, none of which has so far been declared in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
Carmichael is still being investigated by Kathryn Hudson, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, over allegations that he breached three sections of the House of Commons Code of Conduct.
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