Historian David Starkey has caused controversy by comparing the Nazis' view of Jews to the Scottish nationalists' view of the English.

The outspoken academic told the Sunday Times that the Scottish National Party vilified the English in the same way that Hitler vilified the Jews.

He said: “Well, we have a political movement that has a single historic explanation for why your country is facing such terrible oppression; it’s either Versailles or the Treaty of the Union.

“You have a particular group of people who are responsible for this; it is either the English or the Jews.”

He continued by comparing the saltire to the swastika.

In response, Kirsten Oswald, the SNP MP for East Renfrewshire, said Mr Starkey’s comments were “deeply offensive to the Jewish community” and “irresponsible”.

She added: “He has become little more than a serial utterer of bile and bilge.”

This is not the first time the TV historian has angered SNP supporters. In 2012, he said: “If you think about it, Alex Salmon is a democratic Caledonian Hitler, although some would say Hitler was more democratically elected.”