Fergus Ewing has criticised the SNP describing it as 'authoritarian' after he lost his appeal against a week long suspension from the party in Holyrood.

SNP MSPs voted to suspend him for a week at a private group meeting in September after he backed a no confidence motion in Scottish Greens minister Lorna Slater in June.

However, the former rural affairs secretary immediately appealed against the sanction saying he had been standing up for his constituents by voting for the motion.

The motion had been brought by the Conservatives and related to Ms Slater's handling of the now paused deposit return scheme which many retailers and drinks producers had opposed.

READ MORE: SNP MSPs vote to suspend Fergus Ewing from Holyrood group

It is understood Mr Ewing, who is the son of the late SNP trailblazer Winnie Ewing, will be suspended from the SNP's Holyrood group for a week from midnight.

The former Cabinet minister has become a prominent rebel in his party in recent years, voting against the gender recognition reform bill and challenging the government on other policies such as delays to upgrading the A9 and A96.

He has also been fiercely critical of the Bute House Agreement, struck by former FM Nicola Sturgeon with the Scottish Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Ms Slater in August 2021. First Minister Humza Yousaf recommitted to the arrangement when he succeeded Ms Sturgeon.

Earlier this month, Mr Ewing told The Herald he would vote against government plans to introduce a pilot scheme in which rape trials are heard by a single judge rather than a jury.

In a statement, the MSP for Inverness and Nairn, described the SNP as an "authoritarian party".

READ MORE: Yousaf facing SNP backbench rebellion over justice reforms

He said: “I stood up for my constituents to protect them against a disastrous policy, the Deposit Return Scheme, and voted with my conscience against that policy, which was eventually discarded. But the SNP leadership no longer tolerates a conscience vote.”

He said that in 2021, the SNP leadership implemented new rules whereby no SNP MSP can exercise a conscience or constituency vote unless there is prior approval from the whole group.

He said such a move was never part of the party's rules in any of the five previous Sessions of Parliament.

Mr Ewing, who has represented Inverness for the last 25 years since 1999 when the Scottish Parliament was reconvened, said: “By definition, your conscience cannot be contracted out. A conscience vote cannot be subject to permission or dependent upon anyone’s prior consent. 

READ MORE: Revealed: The nine SNP MSPs who voted not to suspend Fergus Ewing

"The group will always support the leadership - about one-third are on the ministerial payroll. So any conscience vote since 2021 requires prior permission of the whole group. Thus, the SNP has now become an authoritarian party requiring strict obedience to the leadership at the expense of personal freedom for any individual member.

 “One can see the same authoritarianism in some policies - where, for example, we no longer trust ordinary citizens to reach the ‘right’ verdict in trial by jury; or, regarding gender reform, where leadership will only listen to arguments deemed by them to be ‘valid.’

“My view is people in Scotland absolutely do not want MSPs who must always blindly follow the party line. ‘A ‘nest of fearties’ is what they do not want,’ the poet Edwin Morgan wrote. They do not want MSPs to be mere ciphers or rubber stamps of leadership dictation. If my constituents wanted a doormat, they would have gone to B&Q.”

The Highland MSP added: “On the other hand, the public wants, expects, and deserves competent government. They did not get that from the Green Minister who so disastrously mismanaged the Deposit Return Scheme. In 41 meetings I had with businesses over a two-year campaign, not one single man or woman believed the Minister in charge was competent.

“Moreover, the SNP Standing Orders have not been extended to cover votes of confidence in a Green Party Minister as opposed to SNP Ministers. And why on earth should we in the SNP have to provide unqualified support for them when the Green Party in turn sets its own terms on their continued cooperation with us?

“Let me cite two clear examples. Mr Harvie setting down his own rules announced that he could not continue to cooperate with the SNP if led by Kate Forbes.

"And more recently, Harvie implied the Greens could not continue to cooperate with a party that received donations from Brian Soutar. Since when do the Greens decide who should lead my party or from whom we are permitted to receive donations? Why do we show them such loyalty when it is so blatantly not reciprocated? Loyalty must be a two-way street. With the Greens, it’s one-way traffic.”

Mr Ewing called on the SNP to remove the clause requiring group agreement for a conscience vote. 

He said: “The SNP Leadership, if they wish to refute the charge of having become an authoritarian party, must now remove this clause. Under Alex Salmond’s successful leadership of the party, MSPs and MPs could exercise their conscience.

"Perhaps because of the experience he himself underwent in 1982, he did not wish this fate visited on others. He was big enough to recognize that in a political party representing the broad spectrum of Scottish opinion, there are occasions where parliamentarians must vote against a party line. That's an example for the present FM to follow.”

Mr Ewing commented on his own future, stating: “For half a century, I have served the SNP - the National Party - as it is the main vehicle for independence. Until the last few years, the party broadly secured the trust of the people. Over the past two years, we have borne the high electoral cost of a disastrous deal with the Greens. 

"It is dragging us down. I suspect that were it put to a vote, the party members may call a halt to it - before even more electoral harm is caused. I, therefore, again call upon Humza to put this to the vote. After all, that’s democracy - not authoritarianism.”

 He concluded: “For my future, I vow to continue to defend the interests of my constituents; and as far as the SNP is concerned… let the cards fall as they may. If the SNP cannot cope with that, so be it.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said: “Fergus Ewing’s bizarre obsession with the Scottish Greens aside, any disciplinary matters relating to SNP members are clearly an issue for them alone.”

An SNP spokesperson: "Discipline is an internal matter for the SNP Holyrood Group."