Labour and Lib Dem MPs demand ‘shameful’ Palantir NHS contract be scrapped | Palantir
MPs have lined up to demand the government cancel its £330 million NHS contract with spy tech company Palantir, describing it as “appalling” and “disgraceful” in a debate on Thursday, after which the government said it was “not a fan” of the US company’s policies.
Labor and Liberal Democrat MPs have led calls for Palantir, which has also worked for Donald Trump’s ICE immigration raid and the Israeli military, to be removed as a supplier to the NHS federated data platform (FDP), while Labor supporter Samantha Niblett questioned whether the agency “can be trusted as the custodian of the private health records of tens of millions of British citizens”.
Describing the deal as “disgraceful”, Liberal Democrat MP Luke Taylor said: “Palantir and Peter Thiel must have their hands ripped off our NHS before it is too late.”
Tech billionaire Thiel, who supports Trump, founded the company and has previously said democracy and freedom are incompatible.
In response to MPs speaking at a debate in Westminster Hall, the government confirmed it would consider whether to proceed with the deal when a break clause matures in spring 2027, despite £210 million of the £330 million having already been spent.
In the face of increasing pressure from doctors, MPs and the public, Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Zubir Ahmed said: “If we consider the break clause at this point and see that there are other providers who can do the job better, then of course that needs to be looked at as well.”
However, he stated that FDP exceeded its performance targets and added: [Palantir’s] policy. But the FDP and the principles that underpin it are critical to the future of the NHS.”
The debate was led by Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley, who described the contract as “horrible”.
“The main thing is trust,” he said. “The future of the NHS depends on data being used intelligently with the trust of patients. Gaining public trust for this type of research involving AI will be difficult enough without a company like Palantir controlling everything.”
The new wave of calls to terminate the contract comes as the healthcare service and Palantir fight and try to sell the benefits of the contract. NHS England tells the Guardian it is focusing on tackling “misinformation”, while Palantir is taking a step back on PR, with advice from Boris Johnson’s political strategist Isaac Levido.
The FDP is proving to be one of the most controversial contracts in the UK public sector, and new internal documents obtained by the Guardian under freedom of information legislation have revealed health bosses’ internal fears about “negative sentiment” about the system. Emails between officials in January discussed the need to “step forward and engage in some proactive communications about the FDP.”
They show NHS England is considering launching a podcast series about FDP. According to plans, the meeting would be hosted by a “pro-FDP” NHS official and almost all of the guests would come from the NHS hierarchy. A separate idea to use LinkedIn to communicate the system’s benefits was rejected on the grounds that public comments “could produce negative emotions, creating a more confused narrative.”
137 NHS trusts have signed up to use the Palantir-backed system, the government said on Thursday. But there are concerns that usage is “shallow”. An NHS official told the Guardian that IT professionals’ concerns “went unheard as the delivery of the Palantir FDP project turned into an ideological project”.
“In many cases we have to use it reluctantly,” they said. “The tools are much more difficult to use. They are not industry standard.”
And in a further sign of difficulty, the Guardian has learned that training for staff to use the FDP, due to start in February under a deal with Euan Blair’s technology-focused training company Multiverse, has not yet started.
Palantir said its software helped drive 110,000 additional transactions and reduce discharge delays. However, the US company’s reputation seems to be a problem. The Guardian previously revealed a briefing note to health secretary Wes Streeting warning that Palantir’s public profile “is likely to make progress with the FDP difficult”.
Palantir uses social media and broadcast and newspaper interviews to hit back at critics. The killings of US citizens by ICE agents and the destruction of much of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces have only increased the risk of Britain losing the most valuable part of its £500 million-plus contract with the public sector. It is advised by Fleetwood Strategy, the lobbying consultancy founded by Levido, which helped the Conservatives win the 2019 general election.
In recent weeks, Palantir’s UK chairman, Louis Mosley, has attacked critics who “choose ideology over patient safety and patient outcomes”, published a Sun story about £60,000-a-year internships for school leavers and sponsored a widely read political newsletter in Westminster. Attacks on Palantir have become increasingly strident. Green Party leader Zack Polanski said no one should be judged by their grandparents, but added: “This man is Oswald Mosley’s grandson and he still insists on wearing a black shirt every time he’s on TV.” Mosley began to respond to X. A typical post was: “Software works while noise persists.”
But MPs such as joint science and technology committee chair Dame Chi Onwurah denied critics were expressing fringe or ideological concerns, citing genuine concerns about vendor lock-in, value for money and data security.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “NHS England is focused on working with teams across the NHS to support the rollout of the Federal Data Platform, tackling misinformation and reassuring patients that in addition to having their data fully protected at all times, the platform helps engage care, speed up diagnosis and reduce waiting times. We have no intention of launching a podcast.”
A spokesperson for Palantir said the software used to process the data was “fully under the NHS’s control, legally and contractually”.
“The program is also achieving milestones with a degree of green delivery that less than 15% of major Government programs achieve. It is expected to deliver a return of £5 for every pound spent.”
