One of the leading candidates for the Sir Fynwy Torfaen constituency at the Senedd election has blasted his opponents’ leader for his record as a council leader.

Anthony Hunt, who is the leader of Torfaen Council, was responding to a report into Dan Thomas’ time as leader of Barnet Council, in London.

Mr Thomas was first elected to the London borough for the Conservatives and rose to deputy leader in 2011, before taking the top job in 2019. The report, published by Unison Cymru, reveals that savings the council claimed to have made were nonexistent.

“Jobs outsourced, roads in disrepair and budgets mismanaged,” said Anthony Hunt.

“At the same time as social housing fell into disrepair, and parents were worried about cockroaches biting their children.”

In 2013, while Dan Thomas was Deputy Leader of Barnet Council, it signed two ten-year contracts with the private firm, Capita. Mr Thomas is described as a “vocal champion” of the campaign in the report and the contracts promised around £165 million in savings.

However, this meant services would become scattered across the country. Some were now based as far as Belfast. Furthermore, almost 800 jobs were transferred to the private sector which removed employees’ rights to a public sector pension and access to occupational sick pay.

The report also found that Barnet Council had paid £229 million more than the original contracts had envisaged.

“While I was a council leader trying to protect vital services and defend my community, Dan Thomas was a Tory leader making cuts even the Tories thought went too far,” Mr Hunt continued.

“This is the chaotic future, without a serious plan, that Reform wants for Wales. Welsh Labour has always put the people of Wales first, building new social homes for rent and delivering improved renters’ rights.”

“Only Welsh Labour can continue to deliver real action and write a new chapter for Wales.”

Barnet Council would later become the first local authority to ever be find by the Pensions Regulator under the outsourced arrangements, while two frauds that went undetected by the authority until the Conservatives lost power went undetected. It must be stressed that Dan Thomas is not personally accused of any involvement in either fraud, which total over £2 million when combined.

While the outsourcing experiment is widely deemed as a failure by its critics, Mr Thomas defended the move by claiming to be ‘in touch’ with what residents actually wanted from their council.

“I don’t think Mr and Mrs Resident are too bothered about who delivers the services,” he told The Guardian in 2012.

“Yes, it’s a bold move because it is the first time some of these services have been outsourced in local government, but there is nothing wrong with being first.”

This week, Dan Thomas told a BBC Wales audience that he has control over policy in Wales, not Nigel Farage, as voters are pressed to consider his previous record by Unison.