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New Liberal Democrat leader backing memo row MP Alistair Carmichael

New Liberal Democrat Partyleader Tim Farron.
New Liberal Democrat Partyleader Tim Farron.

The new leader of the Liberal Democrats has given his backing to the party’s only remaining MP in Scotland, Alistair Carmichael.

Tim Farron said “most decent people” would think Mr Carmichael, who has come under pressure to quit over the leaked memo affair, should be given a second chance.

Mr Carmichael is facing a legal challenge to his re-election to Westminster after he admitted responsibility for a leaked memo written by a civil servant which wrongly suggested First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron to win the general election.

The former Scottish secretary, who had previously insisted he was unaware of the memo, admitted after the general election that he had allowed his special adviser to release details of the document to a newspaper.

Mr Farron, who became the Lib Dems’ new leader yesterday, was asked during BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme if Mr Carmichael should resign and stand for re-election in a by-election.

He said: “Most decent people – and most people are decent people – think people deserve a second chance.

“Alistair has made a very, very fulsome apology and I think most decent people in Scotland, and in Orkney and Shetland in particular and across the country think, fair enough, give the guy a break.

“A handful of people want to pursue it, that is their right, but I think it speaks more about them than they would want it to be said.”