A fleet of Royal Navy support ships is being built with foreign steel in another blow to Britain’s battered industry, we can reveal.
A £452million contract for four refuelling tankers was handed to South Korea-based Daewoo in 2012.
And now the Government has been forced to admit foreign steel is being used to build the 37,000-tonne vessels.
Defence Minister Philip Dunne said: “Manufacture of the four Tide Class tankers will in total require 44,000 tonnes of steel.
“Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering source this steel locally in South Korea.”
Despite the Tories rejecting plans for at least one of the ships to be built in Britain, Mr Dunne blamed Daewoo for buying steel from South Korea.
“Under European and UK procurement regulations, the Ministry of Defence could not contractually mandate the use of particular suppliers,” said Mr Dunne.
“Decisions on the source of steel are a matter for the contractors who take into account the cost, timeliness of availability and the quality of steel used in defence contracts.
“These considerations allow defence contractors to deliver value for money for the taxpayer.”
Roy Rickhuss, General Secretary of Community, the steelworkers’ union said: “This Government needs to make up its mind.
“They say they’re doing everything they can to support our steel industry, but they are quite happy to let foreign steel go into building our ships.
“British steelworkers are doing all they can to save the industry, but they need their government to support them.
“Britain needs strong defences, but they should be built with world class British steel.”
No British company submitted a final bid for the tanker deal, officially known as the Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability contract.
The Mirror, which is campaigning to Save Our Steel , revealed earlier this month that the Navy’s new Type 26 frigates could be built with foreign steel .
And 5,000 of the 82,000 tonnes of steel used for the new £6.2billion Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers came from Spain and Turkey .
We told in October how the Tories were spending tens of millions of pounds on Swedish steel for two defence projects worth almost £3.9billion.
One is a £348million deal for three Navy offshore patrol vessels, the second is a £3.5billion order for 589 Ajax armoured vehicles.
