Scotland's leading historian has described reports he no longer supports independence as a "falsehood".

Professor Sir Tom Devine dismissed a story in The Times newspaper on Saturday claiming the Yes campaign had lost his support.

He said it was a "gross calumny and falsehood" and his position on independence had in fact become more embedded in the past couple of years, particularly because of Westminster's policies on welfare.

However he raised concerns around the timing of a second independence referendum, which he said he believed was too hazardous - due to 'oscillating opinion polls' and unanswered questions on the economy and currency - to risk in the foreseeable future, even if the UK votes for Brexit.

Devine's support for independence was seen as a major boost to the yes campaign in the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum, when he said he had made the decision to switch from being a firm no supporter.

He told the Sunday Herald: "If anything my own position in relation to Scottish independence has become more embedded over the last couple of years, not least because of the unacceptable policies on social welfare emanating from Westminster.

"The issue has nothing whatsoever to do with my commitment to independence – it is entirely the pragmatic problem of timing for another referendum. I spent a challenging few months before September 2014 on coming to a conclusion how I would vote in the last referendum and I seen no reason to go back on that decision now.".

In Devine's new book, 'Independence or Union: Scotland’s Past and Scotland’s Present', which will be released this week, he argues there should be a 60/40 split between the Yes and No vote over a period of time in the opinion polls before another referendum takes place.

He added: "A second defeat for Yes would inevitably have catastrophic impact on the long future of the campaign."

Devine said the idea he would not vote for independence again was "nonsense". However he added: "But if a decision was made tomorrow to hold another referendum in a few months time, I think my position, intellectually at least, would be to abstain - because such a move would be counterproductive and do the cause grave harm in the long run.”