News / Carmichael promoted to become Scottish secretary
SHETLAND and Orkney MP Alistair Carmichael has been made secretary of state for Scotland in the latest government reshuffle.
Previously the Lib Dems’ chief whip, Carmichael replaces Michael Moore who has been sacked after more than three years in the post.
The 48-year-old becomes the first-ever full member of the cabinet representing the northern isles, and is taking charge of a government department that he has always campaigned to abolish.
Carmichael is widely seen as the more “combative” and “feisty” figure to take on Alex Salmond in the run up to the Scottish independence referendum, in September next year.
Speaking from London on Monday morning, he said he was not having anybody stick labels on him.
“People in Shetland know that I am fairly plain speaking and not unnecessarily aggressive. I will take that approach into this job.
“The referendum campaign is the focus of everything for the next 12 months. That’s true throughout Scottish politics and I am looking forward to playing a leading role in that.
“It is a proper debate; and in a debate that matters there will be passion, that’s what people expect and that is what they will get from me,” he said.
Asked about the irony of being promoted to a post he always wanted abolished, the LibDem politician said that at long last there was a job to be done at the Scotland Office.
“When you are in politics you work with the structures you are given. Nobody suggests, for example, that because Alex Salmond wants an independent Scotland he shouldn’t sit in a devolved parliament.
“What has changed since 2011 is that there is a real job of work to be done in this office, and that is to put the case for a continued membership in the United Kingdom, so I don’t expect to be underemployed.”
Carmichael will attend his first full cabinet meeting on Tuesday and most likely miss the launch of a major report by the UK government on independence and defence, in Edinburgh.
Next week, he will host a visit of the leaders of the three Scottish island councils who seek more autonomy regardless of the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum.
Shetland Islands Council leader Gary Robinson said he hoped for a sympathetic hearing when he and his colleagues from Orkney and the Western Isles are to meet the new Scottish secretary as well as the Lord Advocate for Scotland, former isles MP Jim Wallace.
“This can only be positive for the islands at the present time. We are hopeful now that Alistair is in a position to help deliver some of things we are seeking,” Robinson said.
The only other UK government minister from the northern isles was Sir Robert Hamilton, who represented Orkney and Shetland from 1922 to 1935.
The Liberal was parliamentary under-secretary of state for the colonies from 1931 to 1932.
Meanwhile, UK fishing minister Richard Benyon has been replaced by Cornish Tory MP George Eustice.
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