Previous edition: published as Shadow state. 2016.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Who do you think is running our prisons, providing healthcare, transport, legal aid, and child protection? You might think it has to be the government, but in reality 80 billion of public money is given every year to private companies to handle some of our most sensitive and important services. These organisations have been handed enormous amounts of power and yet for the most part they operate with no transparency or accountability. Award-winning journalist Alan White exposes what goes wrong when the invisible hand of the market is introduced into public services. Informed by interviews with senior managers, campaigners and whistle-blowers, as well as with the companies in question, who really does run Britain?