Nicola Sturgeon has been told she can "nick" her ideas for policies from the Scottish Green manifesto.

Party co-convener Maggie Chapman waved the policy document aloft as she told the First Minister there were "plenty of other good ideas in here".

The Scottish Government is looking at the feasibility of a Universal Basic Income scheme, an idea the Greens have championed, while SNP ministers will also back a Green bill that will make Scotland the first part of the UK to ban smacking.

Ms Chapman also said her party had been campaigning for publicly owned energy companies for a decade before the SNP leader announced plans to establish one in Scotland.

Speaking at the Scottish Green conference in Edinburgh, Ms Chapman said: "When we first put the case for a Universal Citizen's Income that would recognise for the first time the tough unpaid work, often caring work, that so many women do each and every day, and that would end poverty at a stroke, people were confused."

But she added: "We have discovered that, by sticking with a policy that is right, however little known, we, along with social movements, can get it recognised by government."

She continued: "For years, Green councillors and MSPs have called for socially owned energy companies. I'm delighted that the Scottish Government has decided that this is possible after all.

"I'm only sorry the people of Edinburgh have had to wait 10 years for the ability to buy not for profit energy, since we first proposed it.

"Similarly, we have argued for a national investment bank to support the kind of socially transformative changes such as those to community renewable energy.

"And we have been campaigning to bring our railways back into public ownership for years ... finally it looks as though we might be getting somewhere on this.

"At first they laughed at us. Then they fought us. Then they put it in the Programme for Government."

Waving her party's manifesto she added: "Nicola, there are plenty of other good ideas in here - feel free to nick them too."

She also used her speech to contrast the "progress" in Scotland with the "train smash government" led by Theresa May at Westminster, accusing the Tories of using Brexit to "demolish everything we hold dear".

And she warned that Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who has led the Tory revival in Scotland, could see her popularity with voters fall.

Ms Chapman said: "Ruth Davidson has the nerve to tell Scottish politicians to get on with the day job while her government appears to think its day job is to create a circus.

"And short of an invitation to join the circus that is the Tory cabinet, Davidson has accepted an invitation to go on Bake Off.

"Just as people quickly went off Theresa May when they realised what she was, I fully believe the same thing will happen to Davidson."