ALEX Salmond has insisted David Cameron’s famous claim, that the Queen “purred down the line” when he informed her that Scotland had said No to independence, is untrue.

Just a week after the September 2014 vote, the Prime Minister was in New York talking to Michael Bloomberg, its former mayor, when his private conversation was overheard by waiting TV cameras.

Mr Cameron indiscreetly recalled how he had telephoned Her Majesty to say "it's all right" and added: "She purred down the line. I've never heard someone so happy."

However, he was later forced to apologise for breaking the convention that the Prime Minister is never supposed to reveal conversations he has with the monarch.

But, appearing on his weekly LBC radio phone-in, the former First Minister claimed the PM’s assertion was simply not true.

Responding to presenter Iain Dale on the subject, Mr Salmond said: “Yes well I know that’s not true. I’ll tell you why I know it’s not true. David Cameron, if you remember, kind of boasted to Michael Bloomberg and was apparently overheard on a microphone saying that.

"And it was a week after the referendum. I was asked to Balmoral the following day, where Her Majesty the Queen assured me it wasn’t the case…where I was assured, as First Minister, that was certainly not the case.”

The MP for Gordon added: “Who do I believe? Do I believe Her Majesty the Queen, Queen of Scots, or a Tory Prime Minister? Okay that’s taken me two seconds. I believe her Majesty the Queen; I’m backing the Queen.”

A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace declined to comment on “private conversations”.