"Unacceptable weakness": UK parliament targets Palantir's $445m NHS deal

Key topics:UK MPs urge ending Palantir NHS deal over dependency risksMilitary contract with Palantir faces scrutiny over tender processConcerns over privacy, political alignment, and digital sovereignty.By Mark Bergen and Lucy White.British members of parliament are calling on the government to end a major deal with Palantir Technologies Inc. and disclose more details of a military contract with the company, as UK political tension involving the controversial data firm ramps up. The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee issued a report on digital services in the public sector, singling out Palantir as the most concerning tech provider. The parliamentarians recommended breaking a £330 million ($445 million) National Health Service contract with the US company, arguing that the UK was at risk of becoming overly dependent on it. The report also described Palantir’s political positions — its US military work as well as comments from its chief executive officer and Peter Thiel, its billionaire co-founder — as a “clear mismatch” with British values. The government now has two months to review the report and provide its response..Read more:.Cautionary tale for SA’s NHI - UK’s broken NHS sucking in more money, delivering less.“Palantir represents an unacceptable point of weakness in our digital infrastructure,” Chi Onwurah, a member of Parliament for the Labour Party who chairs the committee, said in an interview. “We’ve got a key supplier with a political agenda of its own, which is clearly saying that it’s on the side of the American state.” Palantir’s data analysis products are used by the US military and intelligence agencies, and the company has won several contracts under Donald Trump’s second administration with defense, policing and immigration agencies. But officials in Europe have expressed concern about the privacy implications of the company’s products and are increasingly worried about an excessive reliance on Silicon Valley. Onwurah also wrote in the report that Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s recent manifesto “makes explicitly political arguments” that the UK may not endorse. “There is a serious debate to be had about digital transformation and digital sovereignty at a time of both rapid technological change and geopolitical uncertainty,” Louis Mosley, Palantir’s UK chief, said in a statement. “Sadly you won’t find any sign of it in this report. Instead the Committee has decided to put the politics of the playground before public services, arguing for the rejection of technology that is proven to deliver more NHS operations, less crime and better military capability.”Palantir said that 168 NHS hospital trusts have signed up for the company’s data service, as of February, with 80 of the organizations reporting benefits such as faster and more efficient care.Palantir has made a concerted push into the UK. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited its offices on a recent trip to Washington. The company has also hired a former aide to Reform UK head Nigel Farage, deepening ties with the right-wing party that’s leading national opinion polls. In December, Palantir was awarded a £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence, following a commitment to invest £1.5 billion in the UK by 2030. .Palantir argues its software can improve Britain’s health care by reducing waiting times and making hospitals more efficient. In the most recent quarter, it reported $130 million in UK sales, roughly 8% of its overall business..Read more:.The Economist: Palantir might be the most over-valued firm of all time.Opposition in Britain centers on Palantir’s deal with the NHS, a beloved but strained institution. In 2023, under the previous Conservative administration, the company led a winning bid to overhaul the nation’s medical data system. The contract drew immediate criticism over Palantir’s surveillance capabilities and Thiel’s politics — in a 2023 speech, the staunch libertarian said the NHS “makes people sick.” In its new report, the parliamentary committee called on the government to use a break clause for the NHS contract and develop a plan to use a British alternative by the end of the year. The report notes the risk of “debilitating dependencies” on Palantir and requests that the government provide the “exact nature” of the patient information the company can access. Mosley has previously said the company operates like all other government tech vendors. Onwurah said her committee isn’t calling for “stripping out” Palantir and US tech, but is chiefly concerned with “vendor lock-in,” when a supplier has unilateral control over services. “The public, taxpayers and citizens pay the price,” she said. “Once you’re locked in, you will get worse service for more money.”In addition to scrutiny of the NHS contract, the committee report asks for an explanation of why Palantir won a recent defense contract without a competitive tender process. The central government has two months to provide a response. .© 2026 Bloomberg L.P..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

"Unacceptable weakness": UK parliament targets Palantir's $445m NHS deal

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