Palantir lobbied a health minister to consider extending its AI technology into GP records, stretching its reach into the NHS in a way doctors fear could undermine trust with patients.<\/p>\n
The US company, co-founded by the Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, used a direct WhatsApp channel to argue that \u201cthe logic of joining up primary and secondary [care] data is unarguable\u201d and said its software was \u201cideal\u201d for the job. The push came in February this year despite GP data being expressly ruled out of the scope of Palantir\u2019s existing \u00a3330m contract with NHS England<\/a> to run its federated data platform (FDP), which it says has helped cut surgery waiting times and discharge delays.<\/p>\n The messages \u2013 which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Foxglove, a tech equity campaign group, and shared with the Guardian \u2013 appear to be between Palantir\u2019s UK boss, Louis Mosley, and the former health minister Zubir Ahmed. They span several months from July 2025 to March 2026.<\/p>\n In the messages and a briefing document, Palantir urged Ahmed to \u201cget out ahead of\u201d likely \u201cpolitical\u201d opposition from doctors and vocal critics of Palantir, such as the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, and Your Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. The firm also told Ahmed: \u201cThe FDP is already delivering very strong results \u2013 but will deliver even more benefits faster with the right ministerial sponsorship.\u201d<\/p>\n Groups representing doctors and patients, including the British Medical Association (BMA), have opposed the integration of GP data into Palantir\u2019s FDP, arguing there is a lack of trust in the company, which also works for the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When Rishi Sunak\u2019s Conservative government announced the deal with Palantir three years ago, it said<\/a>: \u201cGP data will not be part of the national platform.\u201d<\/p>\n The lobbying emerges after it was reported last week that ministers were unlikely to end Palantir\u2019s NHS data management contract imminently, defying campaigners and two House of Commons committees that wanted the company to be forced out as soon as spring. The Financial Times reporting<\/a>, which suggested the Palantir contract would be extended, came amid concerns that removing the firm\u2019s AI technology would be disruptive without an alternative lined up.<\/p>\n The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, last week told parliament the review was ongoing, but said there was \u201ca huge long-term benefit to using the NHS to develop UK sovereign AI\u201d \u2013 a sign that the government may seek a UK replacement for Palantir when the contract reaches its next end point in 2029. Bloomberg also reported that Tom Watson, a Labour peer hired as a full-time lobbyist by Palantir in September<\/a>, recently wrote to Cooper urging her to keep the contract going, saying: \u201cI want to ensure that Palantir UK rises to meet the government\u2019s new social-value tests and helps build Britain\u2019s sovereign technological capability.\u201d<\/p>\n The WhatsApp logs released under the FoI Act show Palantir telling Ahmed that the benefits to the health system of applying its software \u2013 known as Foundry \u2013 to GP data could include \u201cfaster access to GPs<\/a> \u2026 more effective and targeted management of frail patients, and more effective preventative care\u201d. It also said Palantir\u2019s software platform would \u201cmaintain local control of data\u201d.<\/p>\n The Palantir executive\u2019s name is redacted in the documents released by the Department of Health and Social Care, but Palantir did not deny it was Mosley. In one message, the minister praises a performance on a BBC One Sunday politics programme, just after Mosley had appeared.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat work [on] Kuenssberg btw,\u201d Ahmed said.<\/p>\n The Palantir executive advised the minister that \u201cthe politics [of using GP data] is not straightforward \u2013 the previous government ruled GP data out of scope when announcing the FDP. So, as this moves forward, it will be one to get ahead of and explain, otherwise the opponents described above will make hay with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Campbell, the director of advocacy at Foxglove, said the WhatsApps showed Palantir \u201clobbying to hoover up yet more of the British public\u2019s sensitive personal data\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is appalling to see Palantir pressuring the minister to bring GP records into its platform, despite pledges from the government in 2023 that this would not happen,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n The correspondence \u201cshows they knew just how sensitive this was\u201d and it was \u201ctelling [that] they made this argument privately, via privileged access to the government\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n Dr Tom Dolphin, the chair of the BMA council, raised concerns about \u201cscope creep\u201d with Palantir potentially accessing identifiable personal data in the GP record that could \u201cundermine patient trust and threaten the doctor-patient relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPatients must be able to seek care without worrying which operators might have access to duplicates of their personal information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n