The Scottish Conservative Party chairman has denied Douglas Ross encouraged Tory supporters to vote Labour.
Craig Hoy said that the party will "always advocate that Scottish Conservatives vote Scottish Conservative" but added that voters "will make up their own mind."
Scots party leader Ross had suggested Tory voters should vote Labour at the next election if their candidate is best placed to beat the SNP.
The Scottish Conservative leader said people should “do what’s best for the country” to help loosen the nationalists’ grip on Scotland.
His comments seemed to cause a split with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after the Westminster party rejected the idea.
A UK Conservative Party spokesperson said tactical voting was “emphatically not the view of the Conservative Party” and that voters should support the Tories “wherever they are standing”.
Ross told The Telegraph: “The public know how to tactically vote in Scotland.
“I will always encourage Scottish Conservative voters to vote Scottish Conservatives, but I think generally the public can see and they want the parties to accept that where there is a strongest candidate to beat the SNP you get behind that candidate.
“If parties maybe look beyond their own narrow party agenda and do what’s best for the country and for me as Scottish Conservative leader what would be best is if we see this grip that the SNP have on Scotland at the moment is loosened.”
But a Tory spokesman in Westminster stressed tactical voting was not the official position south of the border.
“This is emphatically not the view of the Conservative Party,” he said.
“We want people to vote for Conservative candidates wherever they are standing as that’s the best way to keep Labour and the SNP out.”
Hoy told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show: "If you were to read beyond the headline, it's quite clear that Douglas didn't actually say that people should be voting Labour.
"He was quite clear saying that the Scottish Conservatives... will always advocate that Scottish Conservatives vote for the Scottish Conservative Party."
But he didn't discourage voters from voting Labour to kick out the SNP.
He said: "But there is an issue that the public in different parts of the country are sophisticated, and they will make up their own mind."
SNP Depute leader Keith Brown said: “It shows just how little difference there is between the Tories and the pro-Brexit Labour party that Douglas Ross is willing to endorse them instead of his own party.
“The Tories and Labour cannot help but tune up the Better Together band again. Keir Starmer has taken Labour so far to the right that they are now just a pale imitation of the Tories - backing Brexit, supporting brutal austerity and attacking devolution.
“The people of Scotland are all too familiar with Labour making grubby backroom deals with the Tories. Just last year despite Anas Sarwar claiming there would be ‘no deals, no coalitions’ his party made deals with the Tories to cling on to power in Scotland’s council chambers.
“Labour has done it before and they will do it again. That is why they cannot be trusted to stand up for the best interests of the people of Scotland.
“Do not give the Tories what they want at the next general election. The only party offering real change for the people of Scotland is the SNP.”
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: "This is a desperate move by Douglas Ross and the Tories who simply want to shore up votes in the seats they currently hold.
"The country is crying out for change. Voters are being let down by both governments - the Conservatives and the SNP – neither are focusing on the people’s priorities of the cost of living crisis, recovery for our NHS or growing the economy and jobs.
"It is up to voters to decide which party they want to support. We do not have any deals with any party and Scottish Labour will work hard to earn the trust and votes of everyone across the country."
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