Following the announcement that Tata Steel is to close its two Scottish plants with the loss of 270 jobs, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said selecting Chinese rather than homegrown companies to supply materials for the new £790 million bridge may have contributed to the job losses.

While Mr Rennie conceded a decision to award the Queensferry Crossing’s steel contact to a Scottish firm may not have salvaged those jobs, he insisted the decision not to could be seen as an opportunity missed by the Scottish Government.

“The SNP talked up on all those things. They said they were always going to stand up for Scotland and Scottish industry, but when it really came to it they didn’t on the steel from the crossing,” he said.

“That in itself wouldn’t have saved the industry but it was part of the problem – the inability of the Government to plan ahead and see a strategic asset that was available in Scotland and now they are facing the consequences of it.

“It’s quite a complex thing with steel prices, and not just steel from China but also from India that is having a significant impact on the market, so I think there are other things in play as well.

“But it does highlight the difference between the rhetoric from the SNP and the reality.

“It would have helped significantly and actually it might have created a model where we could be using much more of the resources from Scotland to build these big infrastructure projects.

“It could have been a model for other parts of the UK to follow as well but they didn’t explore that.

“I remember when they used to berate previous governments for sticking too closely to EU rules and now they are more than keen to stick to the EU rules.”

However, Transport Scotland has confirmed that no steel companies from Scotland or the UK made a bid to supply materials for the Queensferry Crossing contract.

In a statement, it said: “During the procurement for fabricated steel works, no company from Scotland or the UK made a bid for the contract. This would suggest the condition of the market in the UK did not have the capacity to take on an order of this scale.

“A further subcontract for steel fabrication was awarded to Cleveland Bridge (Darlington) – raw steel for this subcontract came from Tata Steel in both Scunthorpe and Motherwell. Contrary to misleading speculation, there were no Scottish bids for FCBC’s steel fabrication subcontracts.

“Tata Steel’s plant in Motherwell manufactures steel plate, it is not a steel fabricator. All of the steel for the south approach viaducts and the twin box sections of the north approach viaduct on the Queensferry Crossing was fabricated by Cleveland Bridge and amounts to over 7,000 tonnes of raw steel.

“The main steel subcontract was placed by FCBC with ZPMC (China) who have the capacity to deliver the necessary quality of steel within the timescale demanded.”