Palantir Contracts Have Become ‘Unacceptable Point of Weakness,’ UK Politicians Warn
A bipartisan group UK politicians are flagging the country’s partnership with data analytics firm Palantir.
In a report published on Tuesday, 11 members of the Parliament’s Committee on Science, Innovation, and Technology warned that the country’s reliance on Palantir’s technology “represents an unacceptable point of weakness” that could give the company greater bargaining power in future negotiations.
“We know that if the vendors are locked out, in the long run, we’re going to have more expensive and worse services,” said Dame Chi Onwurah, the committee’s chairperson and member of Parliament, told WIRED. “It is a trap that must be avoided.”
In the worst case scenario, an entrenched supplier can threaten to withhold work as a way to impose its will, Onwurah believes. “That would stop public services and our economy,” he said. “That’s a big risk.”
Although the committee says its opposition to Palantir is ideologically unmotivated, the report also describes “a clear discrepancy with UK values.” It points to politically charged comments by Palantir founder Peter Thiel—who in 2023 described the British public’s love for the NHS as “Stockholm syndrome”—and a 22-point manifesto based on CEO Alex Karp’s latest book, which advocates bypassing the US and its interests.
“We have a significant vendor who says they will use the technology in line with their political work,” Onwurah said. “If what the UK is trying to do to our NHS or our defense is not in line with Palantir’s political aims, we obviously cannot depend on them as a supplier.”
To reduce the risk, the committee recommended that the National Health Service, one of Palantir’s main partners in the UK, activate a clause in its contract next February that would end the relationship early.
The UK government began using Palantir’s technology in 2020 as it tried to monitor the spread of the Covid-19 virus and medical equipment across the country. Since then, Palantir and its partners have won contracts worth $750 million with the NHS and the Department of Defense, among others. The company has highlighted its ability to enable “innovation and rapid problem solving” in the UK public sector.
The report reveals a similar reliance on US-based cloud providers Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, as well as Fujitsu, the Japanese company at the center of the Post Office Horizon scandal. But “Palantir is deeply troubling,” the committee wrote.
Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The relationship has attracted more scrutiny recently for the company’s work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as the US military and Israeli military. The manifesto based on Karp’s book further fueled concerns about the company’s politics.
“They are not a company that should be anywhere near Britain’s public services,” said Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at Foxglove, a not-for-profit organization that previously campaigned for the NHS to withdraw its contract with Palantir. “Do you want to give a company of this kind – with these views and opinions expressed – an important role in the UK that may be very difficult to remove?”
Appearing before the committee in July last year, Louis Mosley, who heads Palantir’s European business, distanced the company from Thiel’s comments about the NHS. Palantir’s mission is to “support democratically elected governments in delivering the mandate they were elected to do,” he said. “We represent a variety of political views and do not take political positions as a company.”
