THE SNP-Green Scottish government coalition will continue, the minister for independence said today following comments by an MSP.

Jamie Hepburn responded to remarks made by the scion of the party’s Ewing dynasty, Fergus Ewing MSP, on the Holyrood Source podcast.

Mr Ewing told the podcast that he had been shunned by senior party members, describing the atmosphere in SNP’s Holyrood group as “toxic,” and called the party’s independence strategy a “cul-de-sac”.

He argued that the government pursuing what he termed “extremist” policies at the behest of the Greens was undermining support for independence, and called for the coalition to be dissolved.

Responding on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland, Mr Hepburn said: “All I can say is I don’t agree with Fergus’s assessment of the environment in which the Scottish National Party’s parliamentary group is operating in.”

On the future of the coalition, he said: “We have an agreement with the Scottish Green Party to serve in government with them, that was endorsed incidentally by about 90 per cent of SNP members.

“So we have that agreement and we will continue to work with them.”