REFORM’S leader in Wales championed a disastrous £500 million in outsourcing contracts while working as a senior Conservative councillor in Barnet, Unison Cymru warned in a new report yesterday.

In his party manifesto, Dan Thomas said he wants councils to “rebuild in-house capability and stop outsourcing core functions.”

But he was the London authority’s deputy leader when it signed decade-long contracts in 2013 that saw a £2 million fraud go undetected by both Capita and the council, with a subsequent second fraud in the firm’s Darlington pensions office.

Mr Thomas is not accused of any involvement in either of the frauds. The contracts came in £229m over budget, according to the council’s succeeding Labour leadership.

Ahead of the May local elections, Unison Cymru regional secretary Jess Turner said: “Barnet’s outsourcing disaster shows the price staff and residents have to pay when politicians hand public services to private contractors and weaken scrutiny.

“Wales needs high quality services that are properly funded, publicly delivered and accountable to the communities they serve.

“Staff and residents have every right to judge politicians by what they did when they had power.”

Barnet Unison branch secretary John Burgess said: “I watched Dan Thomas operate for the best part of two decades in Barnet. He is adversarial, arrogant and hostile to anyone who challenges him.

“When residents tried to ask questions, he shut down public scrutiny at council meetings.

“People in Wales need to understand what he did when he had power. He championed contracts that cost the council £229m more than planned, left basic financial controls in tatters and saw Barnet become the first local authority fined by the pensions regulator.”

Reform was contacted for comment.