AUTHOR JK Rowling has fired off a prompt response after spotting a tweet that claimed Alex Salmond had said more people in Scotland voted to stay in the EU than the UK.

She launched a broadside against the former first minister, accusing him of presenting “alternative facts” – the latest buzz words since Donald Trump’s inauguration.

But a producer for the BBC2 programme Newsnight clarified that had not quite been what Mr Salmond said.

Instead, he said more people in Scotland by “proportion/percentage”had backed staying in the EU, when he appeared on the programme on Tuesday night.

Ms Rowling had taken to the micro-blogging website herself to say “1.6m voted for EU, 2m voted for UK.” She added: “Scottish politician joining in with the ‘alternative facts’ craze, there.”

Scots voted to stay in the EU by 62 per cent to 38 per cent in last year’s vote and to remain in the UK by 55 per cent to 45 per cent in 2014.

In Scotland 67.2 per cent of the electorate voted, less than the 85 per cent who took part in the independence vote.