“Putting local priorities first”: Alistair Carmichael re-elected as Northern Isles MP

Following his election as MP for Orkney and Shetland, Alistair Carmichael said:

“I want to thank the voters of Orkney and Shetland for putting their trust in me again to serve as their MP. I have always worked to be open and accessible to all who are in need of help in our community, without fear or favour – that remains my promise to people in the isles.

“Nationally this has been a quite extraordinary election. I am enormously pleased to see a record number of Liberal Democrat colleagues joining me in the House of Commons – a testament to a well-fought and positive campaign led by Ed Davey and the entire party across the UK – and especially to see our party win support in Charles Kennedy’s former seat in the Highlands. People across the country will now have hard-working liberal representation, putting local priorities first.

“Keir Starmer of course has to be congratulated on his victory and I wish him well as he builds his new government. When the dust settles on the general election result, I hope it will be recognised as an opportunity to reset our political discourse. The collapse of both the Conservatives and the SNP demonstrates that voters want to move past polarisation and populism and see practical results. Now is surely a moment for us to move on from the politics of identity, to put these divisions behind us, and again to make politics about ideas.”