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The former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has admitted that he was behind a leak to the media of a controversial memo which suggested Scotland's first minister wanted David Cameron to remain as prime minister.

BBC political correspondent Tim Reid says Mr Carmichael gave permission for his former special adviser to disclose the confidential memo to the Daily Telegraph during the general election campaign.

Mr Carmichael says it was an "error of judgement" and if he'd still been a cabinet minister today he would have resigned. He's written to Nicola Sturgeon to apologise - describing it as a "breach of protocol".

There's been an inquiry in to the leak, which concluded that Mr Carmichael "could and should have stopped the sharing of the memo".

The document concerned was written by a civil servant in the Scotland Office and suggested that Nicola Sturgeon had told the French Ambassador that she would prefer David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister and that Ed Miliband wasn't prime minister material.

Mr Carmichael has admitted that he should not have let Mr Roddin leak the memo and accepts "full responsibility for the publication".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-32835714

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