THE TORIES were accused of a “betrayal of Scottish shipyards” today after leaked documents suggested three new naval support ships could be built abroad.

Shipbuilding companies in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, South Korea and Spain attended a recent Ministry of Defence industry day for the £1 billion Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) contract. A number of UK-based shipbuilders were present too.

General union GMB, which obtained the details of the event through a Freedom of Information request, said workers were being “sold down the river.”

GMB national officer Ross Murdoch said: “The government looks set to repeat the blue passports fiasco by putting another order of national significance out to tender abroad.

“Ministers are not bound by normal EU rules on competitive tendering when it comes to military ships. There really can be no excuse for sending our shipbuilding contracts overseas.”

He said an award to a foreign shipbuilder would amount to “a gross betrayal of the spirit of the ‘red, white and blue Brexit’ that Theresa May promised.”

Ministers were under pressure yesterday to reverse a decision to put the contract out to international tender.

An MoD spokesman said the government wanted to “strongly encourage British yards to take part” and hailed “a renaissance in British shipbuilding.”

But SNP defence spokesman Douglas Chapman said: “The Tories think they can do anything to Scotland and get away with it. This is yet another Tory betrayal of shipyards.”

And Labour MP Paul Sweeney, a former shipyard worker, told the Daily Record: “While foreign companies bidding for this work may enjoy financial support from their governments, the Tories pull the rug out from under British industry.”

RFA ships are civilian-manned but supply the navy with fuel, ammunition and supplies at sea.

A contract to build new fuel tankers was given to a South Korean shipyard in 2012, but the order has been beset by delays. The outrage follows the decision to produce Britain’s new blue passports abroad.

It has also touched a nerve in the Scottish independence debate. Fears were raised during the 2014 referendum that shipyards on the Clyde could lose MoD work if Scotland left the UK.