From Silicon Valley to Whitehall: How Palantir Gained Ground in the British State

Key Points

• Palantir, the US data-surveillance firm founded by Peter Thiel, has won more than £670m in British government contracts since 2020.
• The biggest deals include a £330m NHS England contract, a £240m Ministry of Defence agreement, and a £15m contract linked to Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
• At least 34 Palantir contracts have been identified across policing, child social care, refugee resettlement and environmental services.
• Palantir has faced sustained criticism over its technology’s use by Israel’s military in Gaza, and over remarks by chief executive Alex Karp.
• Former UK ambassador Peter Mandelson accompanied Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a February 2025 visit to Palantir’s Washington headquarters.
• Amnesty International and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade have called for British public bodies to end their Palantir contracts.
• Coventry City Council, London’s Metropolitan Police and NHS England have all faced scrutiny over their dealings with the company.
• Mayor of London Sadiq Khan briefly blocked a £50m Met Police contract with Palantir before reversing the decision in June.
• Palantir signed a $30m contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in April 2025, raising fresh data-sharing concerns.
• MPs on a cross-party Commons committee have described Britain’s reliance on Palantir as an “unacceptable point of weakness”.

London (Britain Today News) July 03, 2026 – The scale of Palantir’s presence inside the British state has come under renewed scrutiny after new details emerged of the company’s contracts with the NHS, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Britain’s nuclear deterrent programme, alongside its continuing role supplying software to the Israeli armed forces. MPs, campaign groups and medical bodies have questioned whether reliance on a single foreign contractor for such sensitive data poses a risk to national security and public accountability.

What is Palantir and why is it controversial?

Palantir was founded in 2003 with early funding from the CIA, and has grown into one of the world’s largest data-analytics and artificial intelligence contractors. It is chaired by Peter Thiel, a prominent right-wing tech billionaire and major donor to the Republican Party. The firm’s technology is used by governments and militaries to process and analyse large volumes of sensitive data, which has made it a recurring subject of controversy over privacy, surveillance and its role in conflict zones. As reported by Fleur Hargreaves of Middle East Eye, campaigners have described Palantir’s expanding footprint in British public services as deeply troubling given its record overseas.

How much are Palantir’s UK government contracts worth?

According to Middle East Eye’s reporting, Palantir has won more than £670m in contracts with British civil and defence bodies since 2020. The largest of these is a £330m agreement with NHS England, followed by a £240m deal with the MoD and a £15m contract connected to the UK’s nuclear deterrent. Researchers have identified at least 34 separate contracts across sectors including policing, children’s social care, refugee resettlement schemes and environmental services, though campaigners say the true scale remains unclear due to limited transparency around public procurement.

What is Palantir’s role in Gaza and Israel’s military operations?

In January 2024, Palantir announced a partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defence to support what it described as “war related missions.” The company’s software has been linked by rights groups to Israel’s targeting operations in Gaza. In April 2025, Palantir chief executive Alex Karp responded to accusations that the firm’s technology had contributed to Palestinian deaths by saying “mostly terrorists, that’s true.” UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese later concluded in a report that this suggested the company held “executive-level knowledge” of unlawful force used by Israel. The Pentagon is also reported to be examining whether Maven, Palantir’s military AI system, played a role in a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school in February that killed more than 170 people.

As reported by Fleur Hargreaves of Middle East Eye, Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, said Palantir’s software had helped support what he called Israel’s “genocide and apartheid in occupied Gaza,” and argued that such a company “should have no place” in British public services.

Why is Peter Thiel a controversial figure?

Thiel’s public statements have repeatedly attracted criticism. In a 22-point manifesto posted on social media, Palantir was accused of promoting ethnic supremacy after suggesting some cultures “remain dysfunctional and regressive.” Thiel himself has said he no longer believes “freedom and democracy are compatible.” He hosted a celebration for Donald Trump’s 2024 inauguration at his Washington home, attended by JD Vance, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman. A separate leak reportedly revealed the guest list for Thiel’s private “Dialog” society retreats, which are said to have included sessions on geopolitical risk and global instability.

What is Peter Mandelson’s connection to Palantir?

Files released in connection with the Jeffrey Epstein case revealed that the late financier had introduced former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Thiel in 2013, urging him to “look at” Palantir. The same files documented a relationship between Epstein and Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, whose lobbying firm, Global Counsel, has counted Palantir among its clients. Mandelson accompanied Starmer on a February 2025 visit to Palantir’s Washington headquarters, a meeting for which no minutes have been published. Months later, the MoD awarded Palantir a £240m contract without competition, three times the value of a previous 2022 deal. As reported by Fleur Hargreaves of Middle East Eye, Starmer described the February meeting as “a routine meeting,” while Mandelson called the resulting technology partnership “my personal pride and joy.”

Sam Perlo-Freedman, research coordinator at the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, told Middle East Eye that embedding public services in Palantir’s technology would make it harder for Britain to break from the firm’s alignment with US foreign policy. An MoD spokesperson said robust processes were in place to ensure contracts were awarded “fairly and transparently.”

Why is Palantir’s NHS contract facing criticism?

Palantir secured its foothold in the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic with an initial £1 contract, before winning a £330m deal in 2023 to build the Federated Data Platform, centralising patient data across England. The contract is due for renewal in 2027. Thiel has previously said the NHS “makes people sick,” comparing British attachment to the health service to “Stockholm syndrome.” A cross-party House of Commons committee has since urged the government to trigger a break clause in the contract and consider an in-house or alternative UK provider, warning that dependence on Palantir represented an “unacceptable point of weakness.” The Doctors’ Association UK has separately raised concerns about data flowing between Palantir’s NHS platform, Foundry, and Gotham, the company’s military-oriented software.

How is Palantir linked to US immigration enforcement?

In April 2025, Palantir signed a $30m contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency whose enforcement operations this year have been linked to the deaths of two American citizens and at least 17 detainees in custody. Investigative reporting has identified a Palantir-built tool for ICE, reportedly used to compile data from health and other government sources to help locate individuals for deportation. Critics argue this raises questions about the broader risks of allowing a single company to hold both sensitive UK health data and US immigration-enforcement contracts.

What is Palantir’s role in UK local government and policing?

Coventry City Council, run by Labour, renewed a £750,000 contract with Palantir in May to extend a pilot scheme within its children’s services department, despite opposition from councillors and trade unions who warned of “serious ethical questions.” A council spokesperson said the decision followed a “comprehensive strategic review” and insisted strong safeguards were in place, with the council retaining full control of data and no information shared with third parties. Palantir also ran the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme for six months without charge, before contract values rose from £4.5m to £5.5m annually; by May 2026, officials said switching to an in-house system had saved public money. Separately, Palantir recorded £25.3m in pre-tax UK profits in 2024 but paid an effective tax rate of around 8 percent, well below the 25 percent standard rate for larger businesses.

Beyond Coventry, campaigners say the pattern of piecemeal local contracts makes it difficult for the public to track exactly how much taxpayer money is flowing towards the company nationwide, since many local authorities are not required to publish full contract details. Freedom of Information requests submitted by transparency campaigners to dozens of police forces reportedly received inconsistent responses, with several forces declining to confirm or deny whether they held Palantir contracts at all. This lack of a centralised disclosure requirement has been highlighted by MPs as part of the wider “unacceptable point of weakness” identified in the cross-party committee’s findings, given that different departments and local bodies appear to be negotiating separately with the same supplier without a shared national picture of total exposure or leverage in future price negotiations.
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Why did London Mayor Sadiq Khan block, then approve, a Met Police contract?

Khan initially blocked a £50m Metropolitan Police deal with Palantir in May, citing what his office called a “clear and serious breach” of procurement rules and concerns that the force risked becoming locked into the company’s technology without demonstrating value for money. Khan had previously said he held

“concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London’s values.”

He later reversed course, granting Palantir a 12-month pilot project after the company launched legal action challenging his veto.

What has Palantir said in response to the criticism?

Asked about its involvement in Gaza, Palantir pointed to earlier public comments from its UK chief executive, Louis Mosley, who said that none of Israel’s “publicly reported” military targeting systems in Gaza used Palantir software, while acknowledging the firm does supply software to the Israeli army. The company has not directly addressed most of the specific allegations raised by campaigners and MPs regarding its UK public-sector contracts.

What happens next?

With the NHS contract due for renewal in 2027 and pressure mounting from MPs, medical bodies and human rights organisations, Palantir’s position within Britain’s public infrastructure looks set to remain a live political issue. Campaigners continue to press for greater transparency around unpublished contract terms, while the government has so far defended its procurement decisions as fair and in the national interest.