SHAMELESS MP Alistair Carmichael has refused to dissociate himself from remarks made by a fervent supporter that the legal action over the Frenchgate memo was an “SNP witch hunt”.

One of his constituents in Orkney and Shetland emailed the former Scottish Secretary expressing her concerns about the crowdfunding campaign that was set up to meet his legal costs in the case.

She wrote: “I am contacting you now because I am very concerned about an online campaign by gofundme. It claims to be fundraising on your behalf, for you to ‘Stop the SNP’.

“As you must be aware, it is not the SNP which is bringing or funding the current case against you, but four individual petitioners (all of whom are known to me personally). This fact is in the public domain; it has been widely reported.

“I would suggest that the gofundme campaign therefore appears to be fraudulent as it is trying to raise money using a false statement.

“Are you aware of this, and, if so, will you not only publicly disassociate yourself from the fundraising campaign, but take action to have it stopped?”

However, in a curt reply, Carmichael responds: “I am afraid that I do not agree with you [sic] analysis about who could stand to benefit from the legal action being brought against me by your friends.

“I regret, therefore, that I am unable to be of assistance to you.”

The rejection came as one of the Orkney four behind the legal move to force a re-run of the poll in the constituency, urged the woman behind the Carmichael fundraiser – Sheila Ritchie – to amend inaccuracies on the web page.

Tim Morrison wrote: “As one of the four petitioners in the case against Mr Carmichael I am writing to ask you to amend your campaign page to make it clear that the SNP is not involved in our activities in any formal or informal way. We have received no funding or advice from them at all. Whilst I am a member, I have never been an office holder or even attended a party meeting. They are no more responsible for my actions than the Liberal Democrats are yours.

“My co-petitioners, who are not SNP supporters, feel that your description of them is potentially defamatory.”

Morrison added: “We are not trying remove or eliminate political opposition but hoping to create a polity with higher standards of public life. I look forward to an apology from you and swift changes to your published material.

“I am very glad to see a crowdfunding site like this set up to support Mr Carmichael. It is iniquitous that our current electoral law makes it so hard to challenge MPs and for them to be able to defend themselves appropriately.”

As yet, Morrison has not received a reply.

Ritchie is an Aberdeen lawyer and former LibDem councillor who returned to party activism to run Christine Jardine’s failed election campaign against Alex Salmond in Gordon.