SHAMED MP Alistair Carmichael is to fight a legal move to overturn the election result in his Orkney and Shetland constituency over the “Frenchgate” memo.

The Liberal Democrat former Scottish secretary has denied breaking electoral law in his response to a petition lodged at the Court of Session in Edinburgh by a group of Orkney residents called The People Vs Carmichael.

They have raised more than £60,000 to bring the case – the first to be brought under the Representation of the People Act in Scotland for more than 50 years.

However, the LibDems refused to comment on whether or not they would pay Carmichael’s costs.

The People Vs Carmichael launched their action two weeks ago following Carmichael’s admission that he had authorised – and then lied about – the leaking of a memo designed to damage Nicola Sturgeon. It wrongly claimed that the First Minister had told the French ambassador that she wanted David Cameron to return as prime minister.

Carmichael – the LibDems’ sole Scottish MP – has come under intense pressure to quit after he said he would have resigned from Government had he still been a minister.

However, in his response to the petition he insisted he had not breached section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 – which says it is a criminal offence to release a “false statement” about the character and conduct of an election candidate.

His submission said that remarks he made in an interview with Channel 4 News were “an error of judgment on a political matter”, and added: “It did not amount to a ‘false statement of fact in relation to the personal character or conduct’ of the First Respondent [Carmichael] himself.

“There is a distinction between statements relating to ‘personal character and conduct’ and ‘public or official character’ ... A statement cannot relate to both.”

Professor James Chalmers, regius professor of law at Glasgow University, said the next stage in the process would be a hearing, or trial.

“It is so rare for us to have election petitions in Scotland – the last one was Grieve v Douglas-Home in 1965,” he said.

“It’s not a criminal trial. It’s not terribly different but the law says that the procedure to be followed should be much the same as normal Court of Session proceedings, the difference being you would have two judges rather than one judge or a judge and jury.”

Chalmers added: “For people in the legal profession it is historic. There’s not been one of these for decades in Scotland. They do happen in England, but they are pretty rare events here.

“The court should normally sit in the constituency, but the last one was moved to Edinburgh because that was where they had all the books.

“That’s no longer an issue now with the internet and so on, so we could see the Court of Session decanting up north to hear this case.”

Carmichael’s response to the petition was lodged in advance of yesterday’s midnight deadline.

The Keeper of the Rolls will decide the time and place of the trial, which will be heard by Lord Eassie and Lady Paton, the two judges who are nominated for election petitions.

Carmichael is also facing a formal investigation by Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Hudson.

Last night The People Vs Carmichael said they were “astonished” to have raised more than £60,000 in such a short space of time.

On the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, they wrote: “Two weeks ago when we started the crowd funder at Indiegogo it seemed reasonable to hope that we would have the £6,000 needed to cover the surety by the time the petition had to be lodged in the courts that Friday, reasonable but optimistic. We were astonished when it was raised on the first day.

“The next target was to raise the full amount by the time the case came to court but as no-one had ever tried to do this before, it felt at least to some extent, rash.

“To have raised the full amount in 16 days is incredible... It has demonstrated the strength of public feeling about Mr Carmichael’s position in the House of Commons. The runaway success of this crowdfund shows that people care about truth, honesty and cleaning up politics.

“Michael White said in the Guardian that we would have forgotten about this by Christmas. We will not because you have given us the ability to try the only legal opportunity that we have to challenge an MP.”

They added: “Every individual donation is important because it is an indication of a real person giving what they can for something they believe in and want to happen.

“We feel very humbled and will do everything possible to make sure the resources are well used.”