Health officials fear Palantir\u2019s reputation will hinder the delivery of a \u201cvital\u201d \u00a3330m NHS contract, according to briefings seen by the Guardian, sparking fresh calls for the deal to be scrapped.<\/p>\n
In 2023, ministers selected Palantir, a US surveillance technology company that also works for the Israeli military and Donald Trump\u2019s ICE operation, to build an AI-enabled data platform to connect disparate health information across the NHS<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now it has emerged that after Keir Starmer demanded faster deployment, Whitehall officials privately warned that the public perception of Palantir would limit its rollout, meaning the contract would not offer value for money.<\/p>\n By last summer fewer than half of health authorities in England had started using the technology amid opposition from the public and doctors. The British Medical Association (BMA) has said its members could refuse to use parts of the system citing Palantir\u2019s role in targeting ICE raids in the US.<\/p>\n Palantir was this week called \u201cghastly\u201d and \u201ca highly questionable organisation\u201d by MPs in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n The fallout over Peter Mandelson\u2019s relationship to the convicted child sexual abuse offender Jeffrey Epstein has also affected the image of Palantir, which employed the former US ambassador\u2019s lobbying company, Global Counsel.<\/p>\n Before he was sacked, Mandelson took Starmer to meet Palantir\u2019s chief executive, Alex Karp, at the tech company\u2019s Washington showroom.<\/p>\n MPs last week demanded greater transparency around Palantir\u2019s public sector deals, which also include a \u00a3240m contract with the Ministry of Defence and with several police forces.<\/p>\n In a private briefing for Wes Streeting<\/a> before a meeting with Palantir\u2019s European boss, Louis Mosley, in June 2025, Department of Health officials wrote: \u201cThe public perception of the [Federated Data Platform (FDP)] during the procurement, and then in delivery, has been affected by the profile of Palantir.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not know the extent to which this is impacting on delivery. It is, however, likely to make it harder to go further with the FDP, and to encourage the inclusion of GP data locally.\u201d<\/p>\n The briefing was released under the Freedom of Information Act to Foxglove, a tech fairness campaign group.<\/p>\n The officials said the rollout had also been affected by debates about patient privacy and concerns that the NHS was being \u201clocked-in\u201d to a single vendor, but added: \u201cMany of these debates are inaccurate and are often as a result of misconceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at Foxglove, said: \u201cThe prime minister and the health secretary should listen to the public they serve when they tell them Palantir has no place in the NHS.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should not be scheming with tech billionaires\u2019 staff on how best they can \u2018mitigate\u2019 the \u2018public perception\u2019 problems these tech giants deservedly face through their own repellent behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n The BMA, which represents NHS doctors, said it has \u201clong opposed the involvement of Palantir in the delivery of care and the use of patient data in our NHS, and it is concerning to see from this briefing that the government felt public concern about Palantir should be dismissed as \u2018misconceptions\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n The briefing document suggested Streeting could ask Palantir how to speed up the rollout, and say that the government was keen to \u201cremove unnecessary obstacles\u201d including by revisiting \u201cregulations relating to confidential patient information\u201d.<\/p>\n Streeting on Monday sought to show he had \u201cnothing to hide\u201d regarding his relationship with Mandelson by publishing their WhatsApp messages between August 2024 and October 2025.<\/p>\n None mentioned Palantir, although in one exchange just over three weeks after Streeting\u2019s meeting with the company, Mandelson encouraged him to visit the US and said: \u201cNeed to plan. Lots of tech companies and people to talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n New figures released on Thursday showed that the number of NHS organisations using the Palantir technology has increased since June from 118 to 151, which is still well short of the target of 240 by the end of this year.<\/p>\n Palantir was co-founded by the Trump supporter and billionaire Peter Thiel, who has previously said \u201cthe NHS makes people sick\u201d, and described the British public\u2019s affection for the NHS<\/a> as a case of \u201cStockholm syndrome\u201d \u2013 the term for hostages who feel a bond with their captors.<\/p>\n The former Conservative government minister David Davis said the government now faced a \u201chuge value-for-money issue\u201d over the Palantir contract.<\/p>\n He said there had been \u201cnaivety in the senior management of the NHS\u201d in awarding a contract to a company with \u201cspectacular baggage in terms of its genesis in the American security state\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government is going to have a problem with many hospital trusts and they are going to have really difficult problems with the GPs,\u201d he said. \u201cMy best estimate is they will never get most of the GPs with an organisation like Palantir.\u201d<\/p>\n John Puntis, co-chair of the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, said: \u201cThis looks like another example of a hugely wasteful IT contract, and lack of public trust will make it unworkable.<\/p>\n \u201cThey ought to end the contract or not renew it. They should accept that the public is very concerned and it is going to make the use of public data very difficult if people think it\u2019s going to be accessed by a company like Palantir.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Palantir said: \u201cPalantir software is helping to deliver better public services in the UK. That includes delivering 99,000 more NHS operations and reducing hospital discharge delays by 15%, as well as helping the Royal Navy keep ships at sea for longer and the police to tackle domestic violence.\u201d<\/p>\n