SCOTTISH ministers have accused the Conservatives of excluding them from European Union talks on the crisis-hit steel industry.
The row erupted as David Cameron announced plans to give struggling steel plants help with their energy costs.
The Prime Minister said that steelworks would receive a refund once the EU makes a decision on state aid.
But union leaders accused Tory ministers of "spin and PR stunts".
It also emerged that highly-skilled steel workers in England are being offered jobs making sandwiches.
Thousands of job losses have been announced in recent weeks in Scotland and other parts of the UK by Tata Steel and SSI.
Industry leaders have pinned the blame on cheap international imports and high energy and emissions prices.
Yesterday workers lobbied MPs to help the struggling sector.
Mr Cameron said that approval from Brussels could see steelworks receive refunds for the next five years.
He said: " I can announce today that we will refund the energy intensive industries for the full amount of the policy cost they face as soon as we get the state aid judgment from Brussels.”
A No 10 spokesman said: "We are confident we can get agreement. It's difficult to set a timescale but obviously as soon as possible.”
Scottish minister Fergus Ewing had requested to take part in the EU talks, attended by the Tory Business Secretary Sajid Javid.
But Mr Javid rejected the call, with aides saying the Conservative MP was in Brussels representing the whole of the UK.
Mr Ewing described the decision as "deeply disappointing" and said that Scottish ministers has been able to attend many other EU meetings.
Later during a debate in the Commons Labour’s Angela Eagle accused ministers of sacrificing the UK's steel industry on the "altar of laissez-faire economics".
SNP frontbencher Hannah Bardell told MPs that Scots should not have to follow the Proclaimers' lead and pen new songs describing fresh industrial decline as she name checked the band's 1987 song Letter From America.
She also told MPs that the long-term future of UK steel production would not be guaranteed by cuts to business rates, delayed emission deadlines or "prolonged protectionism" from the European Commission.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 UK jobs at the steel-trading giant Stemcor have been safeguarded after a restructuring deal.
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