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.