First Minister John Swinney has announced he will not support a parliamentary committee’s recommendation to ban Michael Matheson from Holyrood for 27 sitting days.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, he said the process had been “prejudiced” and could bring parliament into disrepute.
He claimed Conservative MSP Annie Wells should have recused herself from the committee due to previous comments about Mr Matheson’s conduct.
The Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, described Mr Swinney’s comments as “incredible and indefensible”.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called Mr Swinney’s comments “unbelievable and embarrassing”.
The weekly question session followed Holyrood’s standards committee announcing recommended sanctions against Mr Matheson after an £11,000 bill was racked up on his parliamentary iPad.
As well as a ban, it said the Falkirk West MSP should not be paid his salary for 54 days.
The proposals will be voted on by parliament.
The iPad charges, which were initially paid out of the public purse, were incurred during a family trip to Morocco in late 2022.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said his party would seek to force Mr Matheson to resign in a vote next week.
He said his party would table a motion stating Mr Matheson should resign for misusing taxpayers money and making false statements to the public, press and parliament.
However, Mr Swinney said he would not support the recommendation for a ban.
