Challenge to Alistair Carmichael’s election to be heard from today

A legal challenge contesting the election of Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael as MP for Orkney and Shetland is to be heard in the Court of Session today and will be broadcast live.

Four of his constituents raised the case after claiming he misled the electorate in relation to a memo which inaccurately stated that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron re-elected Prime Minister at this year’s general election.

The MP authorised the leaking of the memo that suggested Ms Sturgeon made the remarks to the French ambassador.

After initially denying he leaked the memo to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Carmichael subsequently admitted he sanctioned its release and accepted that “details of the account are not correct”.

The constituents raised the necessary money to bring the case through crowd-funding after questioning whether Mr Carmichael would have won the seat had his admission been known before the election.

His lawyers will argue that as Ms Sturgeon was not a rival candidate his actions were not meant to affect the outcome of the poll.

A live feed of the Election Court hearing is available here.