Alistair Carmichael: still fighting despite his ‘mistake’

Under-fire MP speaks on EVEL … and Sturgeon.

Former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has warned that the union is under threat again, just months after the independence referendum.

And in his first major interview since admitting he was responsible for

leaking a memo that falsely claimed Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron to win the election, he’s spoken about the toll his “mistake” has taken on his family.

He said: “It’s a difficult time but it’s something we’re just having to deal with.

“I’ve said I made a mistake, I apologised, but I hope people will judge me not just on one mistake but on 14 years’ work in parliament.”

Carmichael faces a battle to keep his job after campaigners used electoral law to raise a court case against him due to be heard in September.

Carmichael has two teenage sons and his wife is a vet on Orkney. Friends say that the episode has been hard on the whole family who are well known in the island community.

Said Carmichael: “Inevitably when your husband or your father is in public life they are affected by it.”

He added: “I’m getting on and doing the job which is what I’ve been doing this last week.”

Last week Carmichael forced the Government to abandon plans that would stop Scottish MPs voting on certain issues.

He explained: “When I saw what was proposed I was horrified and thought it was pretty clear the Government was determined to bulldoze it through with the minimum of debate.”

English votes for English laws, or EVEL for short, would stop Scottish MPs voting on issues like health and

education that are devolved.

It would also ensure any party that relied on Scottish MPs for its majority would not be able to govern.

The Tories hoped to use arcane Commons laws to bring in the change without legislation. But Carmichael, one of just eight Lib Dem MPs, used an equally rare piece of procedure to bag an emergency debate on the issue.

He said: “The debate just exposed the holes in the Government plan. It hadn’t been thought through.”

The Government agreed to re-write their proposals and schedule a full debate and a vote for the autumn.

Added Carmichael: “The Scottish lion at Westminster has roared it was just to be found on the Lib Dem benches rather than amongst the nationalists.

“What is it people expect of Scottish MPs at Westminster? If what they are looking for is excitable rhetoric they’ll get that by the bucketload from the SNP but I’ve demonstrated that by focusing on the job rather than the rhetoric you can achieve a lot more.”

But he warned that EVEL is still a live issue.

“Do not underestimate the potential of this.

“By trying to shoehorn an English parliament into the UK parliament the Conservatives put the continuation of the UK at risk.”

He’s accused the Prime Minister of trying to counter the Scottish nationalist surge by pandering to English nationalism.

“That’s what got David Cameron his majority, but if he follows that through he risks putting extra stress on the ties that bind us together as a United Kingdom.

“There’s an arguable case that if he continues down this path you will see David Cameron become a bigger threat to the UK than Alex Salmond.”

A year after successfully spending a summer campaigning to save the union is he having to do it all over again?

“Yes, but played out in a different theatre,” he said.

“A year ago we had to make the case for the United Kingdom in Scotland, now we need to make the case across the whole UK.

“People in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as people in Scotland, have to see there’s a benefit for them in staying the union.”

It has been a turbulent time for Carmichael who played a leading role in the No campaign, only to witness the Lib Dems’ electoral apocalypse in May and then face criticism and the court case due to his role in the so-called “Nikileaks” scandal.

He was widely tipped to be sacked as Scottish Secretary last autumn, but in the end Nick Clegg didn’t rejig his team.

Asked if he’d have been spared a lot of pain if Clegg had booted him Carmichael took a long pause and said: “That’s not the way to look at it.

“I had a place at the heart of British and Scottish politics at an absolutely crucial time.

“I don’t regret one second of it.”