MPs and rights groups are warning that the British government's £670m Palantir contract is an "unacceptable vulnerability".
Fleur Hargreaves
Since 2020, Palantir – the controversial US data surveillance company linked to Israeli abuses in occupied Palestine – has won contracts worth more than £670 million in the British civil and defence sectors, raising ethical and national security concerns among politicians and campaigners.
The most significant of these are the £330 million deal with the British National Health Service (NHS), the £240 million deal with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and a £15 million contract related to the British nuclear deterrent.
Although the extent of Palantir's UK public service deals is opaque, at least 34 contracts have been revealed in sectors including police, child protection social care, refugee programs and the environment.
In January 2024, Palantir announced a partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to use its technology to support „war missions” that target civilians in Gaza, including journalists and aid workers, with missiles launched from drones.
In April 2025, Palantir CEO Alex Karp responded to allegations that the company's technology enabled the killing of Palestinians in Gaza by saying, "mostly terrorists, that's true.".
According to the report by Francesca Albanese, a UN special rapporteur, this suggests that the company had „leadership-level knowledge and intent regarding Israel’s unlawful use of force in Palestine.”.
The Pentagon is reportedly investigating whether Maven, an artificial intelligence system operated by Palantir that is used to identify military targets, played a role in the US's "double strike" on a girls' school in Iran in February, which killed more than 170 people, mostly children.
Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, told Middle East Eye: „Palantir’s software has been used to support Israel’s ongoing genocide and apartheid in occupied Gaza… a company that profits from human rights abuses has no place in British public services, including our NHS.”
„The contracts should be terminated and replaced with providers that do not contribute to genocide, apartheid and other international crimes.”
Palantir is also controversial for its reactionary rhetoric. In a 22-point manifesto posted on social media, the company drew criticism for promoting ethnic supremacy: „Some cultures have made vital advances; others have remained dysfunctional and regressive”, and „No other country in world history has promoted progressive values more than [the USA]”.
Another point said: „The question is not whether AI weapons will be built, but who will build them and for what purpose.”
Palantir, partly funded by the CIA, was founded by right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who famously declared, „I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” and is known for his obsessive research into the Antichrist who will bring about the end of the world.
Thiel is a major donor to the US Republican Party and has close ties to Donald Trump; he hosted the president's 2024 inauguration ceremony at his home in DC, attended by US Vice President JD Vance and Silicon Valley CEOs such as Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI's Sam Altman.
A recently leaked website revealed the guest list for Thiel's secret "Dialog" social retreats, which included 200 of the world's rich and powerful people and included panels on cult-building, sex, and preparing for World War III.
Mandelson and the Ministry of Defence contract
An audio recording released as part of the Jeffrey Epstein files revealed that the late financier and convicted sex offender was the one who first introduced former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Thiel, advising Barak to „check out” Palantir in 2013.
The files also documented the close relationship between Epstein and disgraced former British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, whose lobbying firm, Global Counsel, counted Palantir among its clients.
Mandelson accompanied Prime Minister Starmer on a visit to Palantir's headquarters in Washington in February 2025. No minutes of the meeting were made public, and the unedited contracts have not yet been released, despite public pressure and multiple public interest data requests, which the government denies, citing defense and commercial interests.
A few months later, in December, the company entered into a strategic partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence, pledging £1.5 billion to „boost military AI” and develop a „kill chain” to „transform battlefield lethality.” They were awarded a £240 million contract without competition – three times the amount of a previous contract signed in 2022.
When asked why the February 2025 Palantir briefing was not announced, Starmer said: „It was a routine task during my trip to the US”; while Mandelson called his visit to Washington and the subsequent US-UK technology deal with Palantir his „personal pride and joy”.
A The Nerve The investigative portal revealed that Palantir also has a contract with AWE Nuclear Security Technologies, an agency that supports the British nuclear deterrent program.
Legal experts have pointed out that the UK's use of Palantir is particularly problematic given the British government's support - particularly in intelligence matters - for Israel during the genocidal war in Gaza.
„The British government is already deeply complicit in the genocide in Gaza. By making public services dependent on Palantir’s proprietary technology, successive British governments will be less able to break away from this dirty company and its alignment with American foreign policy and broader militarism.” Sam Perlo-Freedman, research coordinator at the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), told MEE.
„The British government’s willingness to accommodate Palantir demonstrates the prioritization of the interests of the arms industry and, more broadly, corporate power” – he added.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told MEE: „Robust processes are in place to ensure government contracts are awarded fairly and transparently. Commercial decisions are a matter for individual departments, based on their individual needs.”
When asked about the company's involvement in Gaza, Palantir referred MEE to a Channel 4 interview in which its British CEO, Louis Mosley, said that none of Israel's military systems that were "publicly reported" to have targeted targets in Gaza use Palantir software - although he acknowledged that the company does supply software to the Israeli military.
Fears about the NHS contract
Palantir has come under intense scrutiny for winning a £330m contract from NHS England in 2023 to collect and centralise patient data, a contract that expires in 2027. Thiel has previously said the NHS is „making people sick” and called the British fascination with the healthcare system „Stockholm syndrome”.
In early June, MPs urged the government to trigger the contract’s 2027 termination clause and develop an in-house replacement or find an alternative UK provider. A report by the cross-party Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee warned that the UK public sector’s growing reliance on Palantir was an „unacceptable vulnerability” that could potentially leave services „at the mercy of foreign actors.”.
Palantir had long coveted the NHS’s world-famous dataset, but it finally secured the contract during Covid when it made a £1 bid to the cash-strapped NHS. The then health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, used special ministerial powers to circumvent patient confidentiality rules to allow the company to process patient data.
The State Audit Office report noted concerns from the government's chief commercial officer that the company's initial bid at a nominal cost to acquire the commercial bridgehead was contrary to public procurement principles requiring open competition.
Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at technology campaign group Foxglove, called it a „capture and expand” strategy that would allow Palantir to win more contracts later and increase their prices as reliance on their services grows — similar to a free trial-subscription model.
„This may seem like a good deal, but there is no free lunch in Big Tech” Campbell told MEE.
A Financial Times recently reported that Samantha Jones, the permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), was forced to apologise for breaching lobbying rules by failing to declare her consultancy contracts with a Palantir partner. Palantir won its first NHS contract when Jones was both a senior non-executive director on the DHSC board and an adviser to healthcare consultancy Carnall Farrar, which was part of a consortium with Palantir.
„Ultimately, if Palantir becomes embedded in our vital public services and one day Trump decides to apply pressure by threatening to pull the plug, who are they going to listen to?” Donald Campbell asked the question.
The AI firm has also hired more than 30 senior government officials, which critics say poses a „serious corruption risk” by creating a „revolving door” between the company and the British state – including the former head of AI at NHS England, who helped launch the first NHS project using Palantir’s product.
A DHSC spokesperson told MEE that the department’s permanent secretary had „no role” in the selection of Palantir for the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) and had already resigned from all private sector positions before taking up his post. On its website, NHS England says Palantir won the FDP contract following a „rigorous, competitive” tender.
Mosley, Palantir's UK CEO, accused critics of "putting ideology before patient safety", despite several NHS hospitals rejecting the technology on the grounds that they would "lose functionality rather than gain it".
But Campbell added that ideology becomes important when Palantir openly aligns itself with the Trump administration's drive to ensure the US has "unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance.".
Palantir's work at ICE
Palantir's role in the UK healthcare sector has also raised concerns about data sharing across sectors. In April 2025, Palantir signed a $30 million contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose use of lethal force led to the fatal shootings of two US citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, and 17 deaths in custody so far this year. Evidence uncovered by 404 Media has revealed that Palantir worked on a tool for ICE called "Elite", which uses data from the US Department of Health and Human Services and other sources to find people's addresses for deportation purposes. The Doctors' Association UK has raised concerns about data sharing between Palantir's NHS data system, Foundry, and the Gotham software used in military operations.
Local government and police
Beyond the NHS, Palantir’s growing presence in other parts of the UK public sector has raised further questions about its expanding role and the safeguards it provides for the use of sensitive data. Labour-led Coventry City Council renewed a £750,000 contract with Palantir in May to extend its initial 12-month pilot programme in its child protection department, despite opposition from councillors and unions who said it raised „serious ethical questions”. The contract will allow Palantir to provide AI solutions to summarise social workers’ notes and develop systems for children with special educational needs.
A spokesperson for Coventry City Council told MEE that the decision was made following a „comprehensive strategic review”. „Strong safeguards are in place,” they said. „The Council is the data controller and has full control over all data. No data is shared with third parties or used to train AI models. AI supports staff but does not replace professional judgement – there is no automated decision-making about residents.”
The issue of the financial burden Palantir places on municipalities also arises. The IT company previously operated the Homes for Ukraine a program set up by the British government in 2022 to help take in refugees after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It did so for free for six months before being awarded contracts that rose from £4.5m to £5.5m a year. In May 2026, a government department said it had saved millions of pounds by replacing the program’s Palantir IT system with one built by its own experts.
In addition to channeling public funds into private companies, Palantir is also a company that paid an effective tax rate of just 8 percent into the British economy in 2024, compared to the standard rate of 25 percent for businesses with profits over £250,000, despite recording a pre-tax profit of £25.3 million.
Police and surveillance
London Mayor Sadiq Khan recently decided in May to block the London Metropolitan Police (Met)„s £50m deal with Palantir, citing ”clear and serious breaches„ of public procurement rules. Khan’s office said London’s police force risked being locked into Palantir’s technology, adding that the proposed deal did not ”ensure or demonstrate value for money„. Khan had previously said he had ”concerns about public money being used to support companies that act contrary to London’s values”. Khan has since reversed the decision and granted Palantir a 12-month pilot project, with the option of an extension after the company took legal action against his veto.
In 2025, the Liberty Investigates revealed that Palantir's contract with the East of England Police would have developed a "surveillance network that includes data on citizens' political opinions, worldviews, health records and other sensitive personal information", including "union membership, sexual orientation and race".
In 2024, Palantir signed a contract worth over £800,000 with Leicestershire Police to provide an „intelligence and investigation platform”, as part of a deal with the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, which was awarded by the Leicester Gazette The data was made public in April following a public interest data request dispute. Rupert Matthews, Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, told MEE he was confident the procurement had been carried out properly, adding that Palantir was the Home Office's sole authorised provider for the programme.
Rachel Williams, the Met's deputy chief constable, also welcomed the decision to allow the Met to continue using the system for another year, arguing that it would help strengthen professional standards, tackle misconduct and increase public confidence. However, when the The Good Law Project, a British legal campaign group, contacted all 45 police forces in the UK, three-quarters of which refused to reveal whether they had contracts with Palantir, raising concerns about transparency.
A The Guardian In 2024, it was reported that the US spyware company was in talks with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) about using its technology to predict the likelihood of prisoners being „at risk of recidivism”, which Amnesty International warned could „lead to discrimination, unfair targeting and other miscarriages of justice”. The Ministry of Justice does not currently have a contract with Palantir. Palantir’s predictive policing project in Los Angeles was cancelled in 2019 after it was accused of entrenching racism and failing to reduce crime.
„A world where every government wants hyper-surveillance is a world where Palantir is super-profitable” – said Duncan McCann, the The Good Law Project is the chief technology and data officer for MEE. According to McCann, the problem is less that the company is selling our data, but rather that it is „enabling the government to use the data,” which becomes especially worrisome when faced with the possibility of a government wanting to implement mass deportation programs.
„Ultimately, surveillance works well with the new far right, and it works very well for Palantir, and that’s why they seem like such great allies” – said McCann. That is why it has evolved into a company that, he added, „fuels fascism and authoritarianism.”.
