Alister Jack has admitted a second referendum on independence could happen in the future but insisted it was not what most Scots voters wanted at the present time.
The Scottish Secretary also played down any SNP attempt to turn the next general election into a "de facto" vote on ending the Union.
The Tory minister made his first appearance at the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster today since the Supreme Court ruled that Holyrood did not have the power to call a referendum without the prior approval of the UK Government.
Asked if there remained a route to an Indyref2, Jack told MPs: "Yes, of course there could be another referendum in Scotland.
"The Union is voluntary and that is evidenced by the fact there was a referendum in 2014.
"Back then there was consensus between the two governments of Scotland, between pretty much all the political parties and there was consensus across civic society,
"That was clear then, that was the position then, and that led to agreement to hold a referendum.
"So, could that position where there is a sustained majority, let me put it that way, could that sustained majority position be achieved again, yes, it could be."
Asked by SNP MP Pete Wishart if Scots could instead use an election to show their support for independence, Jack said: "No, because I don't believe that people vote on one specific issue in a manifesto.
"I also, if you are talking about the de facto referendum that the First Minister is proposing at a general election, I don't see there being a mandate for something, you can't have a mandate for something that we now know you legally do not have any power over."
The Dumfries and Galloway MP compared a pledge to deliver independence to a pledge to remove the UK's Trident nuclear weapons from the Clyde.
He said: "The Scottish Government can no more - although they put it in every manifesto that they want to remove Trident from Faslane - they no more have the power to take away our nuclear deterrent than they do to break up the United Kingdom and that is very clear and the justices agree with me on that."
Malcom Offord, a Tory peer and parliamentary under-secretary in the Scotland Office, also insisted the union remained "voluntary" despite the Supreme Court verdict.
"We're in a voluntary union since 1707 between two equal nations, negotiated on commercial terms, not at the point of a gun, which means either of us can leave at any time.
"The reason neither of us in 315 years is it has been the most succesful union, economically and politically."
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