Humza Yousaf was today set to refuse an electoral pact with Alex Salmond’s party as he battles to save his political future.
The Alba Party, headed by Mr Salmond, is likely to have the deciding vote in a knife-edge vote of no confidence in the SNP first minister at Holyrood this week.
Its only MSP, Ash Regan, is to make a set of demands to Mr Yousaf and one of those demands included her rivals step aside in some seats to allow Alba to be elected.
Mr Salmond told Sky News his party would be “prepared to assist” Mr Yousaf in a no-confidence vote
He said Ms Regan – who defected from the SNP in the wake of her defeat in the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon last year – had found herself in “a highly influential position”.
“Ash Regan will be meeting Humza Yousaf in person,” Mr Salmond told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
“She’ll take with her what I think are extremely reasonable proposals about prioritising independence, moving away from the identity agenda and moving on to people’s agenda of housing, education and jobs.
“Now I would hope that’s what Humza Yousaf wants to do and therefore he will welcome these proposals and welcome that support.”
Mr Yousaf’s spokesperson dismissed as “fantasy” the idea the First Minister would agree an electoral pact with the Alba Party to gain its support ahead of the no-confidence votes.
It comes after the Greens were sacked from their SNP powersharing government arrangement on Thursday.
The decision led to angry recriminations from the Greens who later said they would back a motion of no-confidence in the first minister, put forward by the Scottish Conservatives.
The SNP leader has written to other parties in an attempt to build bridges and establish how they can work with his minority Government, inviting the other leaders to meetings at his official residence.
The SNP’s former leader in Westminster today apologised to Scottish Green MSPs.
Ian Blackford said: “I want to appeal to our friends and colleagues in the Green Party to recognise where we are. We are colleagues together in arguing for independence.
“We pushed through legislation for which there has been mutual support.
“We can make sure this government can deliver on the priorities for the people of Scotland if we make sure Humza Yousaf remains our first minister.”
The MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber added: “I apologise for what has happened this week, it could have happened in a different way, but we are where we are”.
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said her party’s position on the confidence motion is unchanged.
She said: “I cannot imagine anything at this point that could change that position.
“This was a spectacular breach of trust.”
The tight parliamentary arithmetic at the Scottish Parliament, where the SNP have 63 out of 128 voting MSPs, means Ms Regan’s support may be needed to get Mr Yousaf over the line.
