MPs, NGOs and campaigners took on tone-deaf outsourcing firms yesterday as industry bigwigs prepared a swanky sell-offs celebration — even as a new study revealed that the public wants rid of unconsulted privatisations.

Lobbying group We Own It took the initiative to criticise the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), which will be handing out gongs tonight to Britain’s most prolific privatisers.

Citing a new survey from Our Services Our Say (OSOS) which found that 73 per cent of the public wants to be consulted on public-service contracts passing into private hands, We Own It director Cat Hobbs said: “The rights and views of the public are completely ignored in the current debate about outsourcing.

“The National Outsourcing Association awards demonstrate everything that’s wrong with the current approach to outsourcing.

“It’s not acceptable that companies like Capita and Serco keep failing to deliver and yet take part in awards to slap each other on the back.

“At a time of budget cuts, councils can take this positive step by increasing transparency and accountability. They can save money in the long term by bringing services in-house.”

And they were joined by shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who threw his weight behind the campaign alongside Green MP Caroline Lucas, local councillors, academics and anti-privatisation activists.

Speaking ahead of a picket which is being planned to disrupt the NOA awards, held in a luxury London hotel, Mr McDonnell said: “Outsourcing and privatisation have gone much too far without giving the people affected any kind of say.

“We Own It is calling for highly popular, common-sense measures that would increase transparency and accountability and put people ahead of profit.”

He added that the group’s proposed Public Service Users Bill, promoting public ownership and participation, “is a great idea that councils around the country should start putting into practice.”

Heavily present at this year’s NOA awards is outsourcing giant Capita, which is up for the public-sector outsourcing project of the year prize for its work with the BBC.

The company is best known for holding a whopping £2.45 billion government contract to source temporary staff for Whitehall.

Yet almost half of those quizzed by OSOS in their survey had not heard of the company that runs both London’s congestion charge and the army’s recruitment service.

The campaign is demanding that outsourcing of public contracts is made with full transparency, with information on the companies, performance and financial information readily available.

It has also demanded the right for the public to recall bad providers.

Capita currently provides consultancy to 70 per cent of local authorities, police and fire services and NHS trusts, including advice on financial matters.

But according to Debt Resistance UK campaigner Joel Benjamin, the “independent” company “was taking undeclared kickback payments from Barclays and RBS, when councils borrow from banks, pocketing millions of pounds at taxpayers’ expense.

“Capita running public services equals ‘fraudmininistration,’ enabled by our own government, and has no place in a democratic society.

“No more public contracts should be handed over to these parasites until fraudulent conduct by Capita has been fully investigated by authorities.”