Humza Yousaf has refused to say whether Highland rebel Fergus Ewing will be booted out of the SNP for voting to oust Lorna Slater.
The SNP leader would not shed any light on the Inverness and Nairn MSP’s future when he was grilled on the row by Douglas Ross during First Minister’s Questions.
Mr Ewing has been a strong critic of the SNP’s power-sharing agreement with the Greens and backed a Tory move to oust Ms Slater from her ministerial role.
Doubts have been cast over whether the veteran nationalist will be allowed to keep the SNP whip following his rebellion.
When asked if Mr Ewing would be punished, the first minister replied: “I’m not going to go into issues that are matters for our group.
“I’m not going to take any lectures on leadership from Douglas Ross.”
The Scottish Tory leader claimed Mr Yousaf was “sacrificing” a “party stalwart” to maintain his party’s alliance with the Greens.
Former government minister Mr Ewing has been an MSP since Holyrood first opened in 1999.
Mr Ross added that the SNP leader was punishing one of his own backbenchers for “challenging Green incompetence”.
Circular economy minister Ms Slater has come under intense scrutiny for her management of the botched deposit return scheme.
Setting out his reasons for voting to remove her, Mr Ewing said he had consistently warned against the environmental recycling project.
He wrote: “The deposit return scheme proposed was fatally and irremediably flawed.
“My warnings issued first privately then in public were ignored or dismissed.
“The minister with responsibility for the scheme does not enjoy the confidence of business.”
An SNP spokesperson said: “We are pleased to have won this vote convincingly – one SNP MSP not abiding by the whip in this instance is an internal party matter, which will be considered by the chief whip in due course.”
Mr Yousaf defended the SNP’s continued alliance with the Scottish Greens and maintained the Conservatives were set against action to tackle climate change.