The former Scottish secretary leaked a memo that damaged the SNP

The former Scottish Secretary, Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, has admitted being behind the leak of a controversial memo which claimed Nicola Sturgeon secretly wanted David Cameron to remain prime minister.

Sturgeon had apparently confessed this to the French Ambassador, but Carmichael has said he now accepts the document, leaked during the general election, was inaccurate.

A Cabinet Office inquiry found Carmichael's former special adviser Euan Roddin had leaked the memo to the *Daily Telegraph* with his boss's knowledge.

The Cabinet Office interviewed the Scotland Office civil servant who produced the memo and found that he believed it was accurate. However the report said "part of the conversation between the French Ambassador and the First Minister might well have been 'lost in translation'."

"The Cabinet Secretary has concluded that there is no reason to doubt that he recorded accurately what he thought he had heard. There is no evidence of any political motivation or ‘dirty tricks’," the report added.

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