On October 1st 2026, there were protests against Palantir’s contract with the National Health Service (NHS). There were both local protests at London Hospitals calling for the contract to be cancelled and later that night there was a protest at the Offices of Palantir UK in Soho Square in London, Great Britain.
History of Palantir in the NHS
To start with some history underlying the protests against Palantir’s contract with the NHS would be useful so that everything is a bit clearer. Palantir’s relationship with the NHS came into existence during the pandemic in 2020 when Palantir was given the contract to develop the NHS Covid-Data store. It offered its expertise for £1 only. This was due to expire but was extended several times until January 2023.
In November 2023, Palantir was given a 3-year contract to develop part of the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDA) worth £23 million whose purpose was to ensure that NHS data is organised to ensure better “healthcare options”.
“The new data platform will be built around five major use cases, each wide-ranging in scope:
- Population health and person insight
- Care coordination (with focus on ICS)
- Elective recovery (with focus on trusts)
- Vaccines and immunisation
- Supply Chain”
At the time, a legal suit was filed arguing that this decision did not take into account data protection of patients and the public. The contract expires in 2027 and doesn’t have to be renewed and Palantir’s FDA doesn’t have to be used.
That is up to Andy Burnham, and that decision needs to be made soon as the ability to terminate the contract ends in February 2027.
In March 12th 2026, a briefing by the Health Charity Medact was completed and called for the contract to be terminated given what Palantir is and who owns it. Other reasons cited were its far right politics (voiced by owner Peter Thiel) and who it has worked with: the US military, the ICE anti migrant agency, the Israeli “Defence” Force,. Its software has been used in the Gaza genocide,
The briefing report has the support of Amnesty International, the Good Law Project, the tech-workers union and NHS support campaign groups. There is a possibility of ending the contract in early 2027 due to a clause embedded that allows the contract to be terminated. Pressure has increased substantially to get PM Andy Burnham to use the get out clause and stop the use of the Federated Data Platform developed by Palantir before it is further embedded in the NHS data than it already has.
Palantir’s spread
Starting just in the NHS, Palantir has spread its claws and is now deeply embedded in the UK government. Peter Mandelson’s firm Global Counsel was hired by Palantir (and OpenAI) to help them break into the UK market.
Peter Mandelson was appointed UK Ambassador to the US under Keir Starmer; but it was later revealed he was a confidant of the late paedophile Epstein. He was accused of Misconduct in Public Office for sharing UK government secrets with Epstein concerning the UK government’s response to the 2007-8 economic crash. He was sacked by Starmer but we are still waiting to find out whether charges will be laid against Mandelson.
Tom Watson, ex-Labour Minister and ferocious opponent of Jeremy Corbyn, has taken on the Mandelson role. He has joined Palantir in a senior role and has defended their position in the mass media. He has claimed opponents of the contract are exercising mob rule.
According to The Lowdown:
“Palantir has contracts with multiple UK government bodies. An investigation by The Nerve, published in January 2026, found at least 34 current and past state contracts across at least 10 government departments (including NHS contracts), local councils, and police authorities. The contracts which are worth at least £670 million, include MoD, Highways England, DEFRA, Local councils, such as Coventry City Council, the Home Office and the Government Digital Service. Palantir is providing AI investigation tools to 11 police forces.”
Back in May of this year, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, blocked Palantir’s £50 million contract of the Metropolitan Police in London. According to the Guardian, Palantir was hired to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations. Khan argued that there was not open bidding for the project. This would have been the largest contract with British police. This would have been their 3rd biggest contract besides the NHS and the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Palantir sued Sadiq Khan, not London, not the police, but the mayor directly. That is a personal threat from Palantir to any that try to block them. Threatening to drive the mayor into personal bankruptcy seems pretty cheap from these billionaires …
There is significant concern about how Palantir got all of these contracts with the NHS; there are accusations of questionable use of former NHS staff and government lobbying at play.
Doctors oppose Palantir
In 2025, the British Medical Association (BMA) Area Representative Meeting concerned about Patient Trust and Transparency passed a motion about Palantir’s role expressing the need for “any corporation involved using NHS data to have a track record around security, privacy, transparency and ethics.” They also called for publicly owned alternatives to Palantir. The recognition that this contract may bring the NHS itself into disrepute for using Palantir was relevant to the passage of this motion.
According to The Lowdown
In response to the BMA’s call for doctors to limit engagement, Palantir’s UK chief Louis Mosley told the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee that the BMA had “chosen ideology over patient interest.”
Isn’t it wonderful that Louis Mosley (Oswald Mosley‘s grandson) takes the time to red-bait the British Medical Association?
Due to its contract with the IDF and the use of its work in the Gaza genocide, Palantir is suspected of complicity in crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza. This is a central argument for ditching the contract.
People are rightfully concerned that information collected by Palantir for the NHS, which almost everyone in the country uses and contains a massive amount of information about all those that use it, could be shared across government sectors. People are understandably wary of central government identity databases.
Needless to say, people are worried that information generated by Palantir will be given to immigration authorities as well as the police. Reform UK has suggested linking up government surveillance against “illegal immigrants” and creating a “Deportation group” like ICE.
When talking about Palantir, paranoia is just good sense.
Protests against Palantir have been broad, there are supporters of the NHS, there are medical professionals, there are people concerned at the spread of Palantir’s usage in Britain, there are Palestinian activists and there are people opposed to ICE and attacks on immigrants. Since many political activists in this country are opposed to Palantir due to their contract with the IDF the opposition to Palantir includes Palestine Solidarity activists and, in some cases, they are leading the protests.
One of the strangest things that occurred at the anti-Palantir protests was far-right Zionist Jews standing in opposition to the protesters. It seems that wherever there is a protest where Palestinian solidarity activists will be, they show up too.
Thanks Steve Eason for photos