The botched past of Reform UK’s Leader in Wales: Dan Thomas Even just having him in the #Senedd would be a liability. Dan Thomas, who served as the Leader of Barnet Council from 2017 to 2022, is a figure associated with a particularly controversial and impactful policy. The most notable and interesting thing about his tenure is his role as the chief architect and advocate for Barnet’s “Commissioning Council” model, often dubbed “The Barnet EasyCouncil” or “The John Lewis Model.” Under Thomas’s leadership, this reached its apex with the £1 billion+ “Strategic Partnership” with Capita, outsourcing the bulk of the council’s functions (from finance and IT to environmental services and planning) in two massive contracts. The Controversy and “Capita Crisis” This is where Dan Thomas’s legacy becomes particularly contentious. The outsourcing model, especially the Capita contracts, became synonymous with high-profile failures: · Massive Data Breaches: Multiple serious data breaches occurred, including one exposing the personal details of thousands of residents.
· Critical Service Failures: There were systemic problems in planning, licensing, and housing benefits. Barnet’s planning department became one of the slowest in the country.
· Financial Scrutiny: The contracts were criticised for lack of transparency and control. A £2 million fraud by a Capita employee in the pensions service was a major scandal.
· Public Backlash: The model was widely seen as putting ideology and cost-cutting ahead of service quality and resident welfare. The slogan “Barnet – the Council that Works for You” was often mocked by residents experiencing the opposite. 
Dan Thomas was seen as a staunch, ideological defender of the model, often dismissing criticism and attributing problems to teething issues rather than fundamental flaws. This made him a lightning rod for opposition.
 Following the 2022 election loss, he stepped down as Conservative group leader and largely retreated from frontline politics. 
His tenure is now studied as a cautionary tale in local government about the risks of extreme outsourcing, the loss of institutional capacity, and the difficulty of managing large, complex contracts for public services. In summary, the most interesting aspect of Dan Thomas is that he became the personification of Britain’s most ambitious and, ultimately, most troubled experiment in wholesale council outsourcing. His leadership offers a stark case study in the collision of free-market ideology with the practical, day-to-day realities of delivering public services.