Jeremy Thorpe after discovery by the "Daily Mail". Bessell gave muddled accounts of his involvement with Scott, but insisted that his former chief was innocent of any wrongdoing. On 16 March 1976 Newton's trial began at Exeter Crown Court, where Scott repeated his allegations against Thorpe despite the efforts of the prosecution's lawyers to silence him. Newton was found guilty and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, but did not incriminate Thorpe. The erosion of public support for the Liberal Party continued with several poor by-election results in March, which the former leader Grimond attributed to increasing lack of confidence in Thorpe. On
Jeremy Purvis Jeremy Purvis Jeremy Purvis, Baron Purvis of Tweed (born 15 January 1974) is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician, and was MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale from 2003 to 2011. It was announced that he would be elevated to the House of Lords in August 2013 He is the leader of the Devo Plus cross-party group. He was born in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, where he later attended school. He studied Politics and Modern History at university in London, graduating in 1996. While at university he worked for the ELDR (Liberal) Group in the European Parliament and Liberal International. On graduating, Purvis