The First Minister was urged to apologise after being accused of having "refused" to tell MSPs what she "knew to be the truth" about delays in EU payments to farmers.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson made the allegation at First Minister's Questions on Thursday.

In response, Sturgeon said the Conservative leader was "playing politics".

She said if Davidson wanted to discuss transparency she should look to Prime Minister Theresa May's response on Wednesday to questions about her communications with Scottish secretary David Mundell over the DUP deal.

Last week at FMQs Davidson asked Sturgeon if her government had sought an extension to the Common Agricultural Payments (CAP) deadline from the European Commission.

The Scottish Government has until midnight on Friday to pay 95% of applications or it may face a multi-million pound fine, in addition to an estimated £5 million penalty for breaching last year's extended deadline.

In response, the SNP leader had said her administration was speaking to the EU about "contingency arrangements we consider are required" around farm payments.

Following the exchanges in the chamber, the First Minister's spokesman confirmed an official request had been lodged for an extension.

Commission sources later told STV News the Scottish Government wants the deadline moved by four months from Friday to October 15.

Davidson read out a section of the ministerial code to MSPs which states it is "of paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to the parliament".

She later added: "It took journalists to email the European Commission itself for the facts to come out."

"Last week the First Minister had to apologise to farmers over messing up their payments again. But now she owes the Parliament an apology for not being straight about it."

Sturgeon told MSPs: "If Ruth Davidson wants to talk about lack of transparency in answers given to a parliament, perhaps she will go and watch the video of Theresa May in the House of Commons yesterday, refusing to answer the simple question, did the secretary of state lobby for Scotland to get the same money that went to Northern Ireland."

Following FMQs, Sturgeon's official spokesman said Davidson's allegation was "concocted nonsense from the Tories".