SNP candidate Danus Skene, who ran Alistair Carmichael close in the General Election, speaks after the election count last month.
The SNP General Election candidate for the Northern Isles says the people of Shetland and Orkney have been left with “an MP of questionable integrity”.
Danus Skene’s comments came after the revelations that Alistair Carmichael lied about his involvement in the release of a memo attempting to smear Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Mr Skene, who slashed Mr Carmichael’s majority to 817, said: “It is now established that Alistair Carmichael at the beginning of April authorised the release of an unverified memo allegedly reporting that Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister, was privately keen that David Cameron should be the next Prime Minister.
“Mr Carmichael’s authorisation has been revealed after he had claimed at the time that the first he had heard of the memo’s release was from a journalist. The purpose of the release was clearly to discredit the First Minister during the election campaign.
“Mr Carmichael has now admitted responsibility for the authorisation. This amounts to an admission that he lied. He could and should have come clean at the time. This would have been before the election, and before the expenditure of time and money pursuing an enquiry to establish the truth.
“As it is, the people of Orkney and Shetland were kept in the dark by a cover-up, and find themselves to have elected an MP of questionable integrity whose standing in the Commons is fatally undermined. We in the isles cannot consider ourselves to be effectively or honourably represented.”
Mr Skene said it was “appropriate” that Mr Carmichael should be pressed by so many of his constituents to consider whether his career as MP was over.
He added: “Orkney and Shetland need and deserve effective representation. We have an extensive and distinctive agenda concerning fisheries issues, the future of renewables, transport links and the future of the oil and gas industry.
“We must also address the challenges faced across the country concerning the need to end the UK government’s failed austerity programme.
“The SNP in the isles stands ready to contest any new election to select an appropriately focussed MP of integrity.
“We will present a prospectus that seeks to promote prosperity, fairness, and good government. The isles would be most effectively represented by an MP who is part of the SNP’s dynamic new bloc of representatives at Westminster.”