Scotland's first minister has defended his friendship with Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark following questions over his holiday at her Majorcan villa.

Jack McConnell dismissed claims that he had broken standards rules or that the friendship affected the journalist's impartiality.

He was supported by the prime minister, who advised McConnell to "ignore" the criticism.

Speaking on the Radio 4 Today programme, McConnell said: "I think there has never been any question about Kirsty Wark's impartiality in the 20 or so years that she has been a broadcaster.

"What we have is one family with a son and a daughter staying with another family with a son and a daughter in their house - family friends for nearly 20 years. No question that there was anything wrong or anything has ever influenced either Kirsty Wark or I in our jobs.

"I think it would be a very, very sad day if politicians or broadcasters dropped their friends, dropped families that they were closely associated with just simply because of their positions."

Opponents have questioned whether Wark should anchor the BBC general election coverage in Scotland in light of her friendship with McConnell .

The first minister also defended differences between his administration and the UK Labour government saying it would be "unhealthy if we created a devolved parliament in Scotland and a devolved government in Scotland and then that devolved parliament and devolved government did exactly the same things as the government at Westminster".

"There would be little point in having devolution if we simply copied what was happening elsewhere in the country."