{"id":598223,"date":"2026-05-22T15:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/598223\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T15:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:52:08","slug":"palantir-hits-back-at-sadiq-khan-after-50m-contract-with-met-police-blocked-palantir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/598223\/","title":{"rendered":"Palantir hits back at Sadiq Khan after \u00a350m contract with Met police blocked | Palantir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palantir has accused Sadiq Khan of \u201cputting politics above public safety\u201d after the London mayor blocked its \u00a350m contract with the Metropolitan police<\/a> in a move that has also led to tensions inside Labour over its involvement with the US tech company.<\/p>\n

Louis Mosley, who heads Palantir in the UK and Europe, accused Khan of politicising procurement after he rejected a two-year deal for Scotland Yard to use AI to process intelligence in criminal investigations, as first revealed<\/a> by the Guardian. Mosley said: \u201cWhat Londoners value is not being mugged, not being raped by a serving police officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Met had planned to hire Palantir<\/a>, which was co-founded by the Trump-supporting tech billionaire Peter Thiel, to automate aspects of investigations. But the mayor\u2019s office, which oversees large Scotland Yard contracts, said there had been a \u201cclear and serious breach\u201d of procurement rules.<\/p>\n

Palantir also works for the Israeli military and the Trump administration in its immigration crackdown. Khan has previously said Londoners only wanted to see public money being paid to companies that \u201cshare the values of our city\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year, when the company\u2019s chief executive, Alex Karp, was challenged that \u201cPalantir kills Palestinians\u201d in Gaza, he said: \u201cMostly terrorists, that\u2019s true.\u201d Khan\u2019s stance puts him at odds with the UK government which has a \u00a3330m NHS England deal with Palantir and a \u00a3240m deal with the Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n

Scotland Yard said Khan\u2019s move was \u201cdisappointing\u201d, adding that without new technology it would have to cut officer numbers which would in turn affect the force\u2019s ability to keep London<\/a> safe.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Mosley told Times Radio: \u201cWhat Londoners value is not being mugged, not being raped by a serving police officer and that\u2019s really what the focus here should be \u2026 If we are going to politicise procurement in that way then we are going to compromise public safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

His response drew an angry response from the Labour MP Stella Creasy, who said Mosley \u201cshould be ashamed of himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cTo hear the CEO of Palantir using the serious matter of sexual abuse by Met officers to attack the mayor of London for rejecting his company and so cutting his profits shows exactly why Palantir are not fit to lecture anyone on values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mosley also questioned why Khan took exception \u201cwith our values and not with other tech companies\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may work with Israel, but so does Amazon, and so does Microsoft,\u201d he said. \u201cWe may work with the Trump administration supporting the immigration enforcement arm of his government, so does Amazon, so does Microsoft \u2026 why do we get singled out?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mosley\u2019s response came as Khan\u2019s decision appeared to split parts of the Labour party. MPs including Rosena Allin-Khan and Clive Lewis called it the \u201cright call\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalantir does not reflect the values of our city,\u201d said Allin-Khan. \u201cWe must maintain public trust and ensure that any tech partnerships truly serve the safety and rights of Londoners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis said: \u201cOther mayors and police and crime commissioners should take note and keep Palantir out of policing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Peter Kyle, the business secretary, said Palantir could do things \u201cno one else does around the world at the moment, and that\u2019s something that I am really taken with\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kyle, who is among Labour ministers who have been lobbied by Palantir, according to records of ministerial meetings, called on the London mayor to \u201ccome out and explain\u201d his \u201cbig decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

Scotland Yard appointed Palantir initially on a separate deal worth less than \u00a3500,000, which meant it did not have to be scrutinised by the mayor. That deal was to use AI to detect rogue officers by scanning to see how they might be abusing rosters and other systems.<\/p>\n

The body that represents rank and file officers, the Metropolitan Police<\/a> Federation, described it as a \u201cbig brother\u201d system and criticised the \u201cunchecked use of a controversial AI provider to spy on every single one of our colleagues\u201d.<\/p>\n

Met chiefs wanted to extend Palantir\u2019s involvement, using it to scan criminal intelligence data for patterns and clues, as it already does for smaller police forces including Bedfordshire and Leicestershire. But City Hall found that the process for extending Palantir\u2019s role did not allow bids from other suppliers.<\/p>\n

Ministers say they are aware of the need for less reliance on foreign AI companies as the technology becomes increasingly applied in the delivery of public services.<\/p>\n

Kyle said: \u201cWe need to have more British AI companies that can do those kinds of things, which is why I\u2019ve taken equity stakes in British AI firms and British tech firms, so that we can scale them up much, much faster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Palantir has accused Sadiq Khan of \u201cputting politics above public safety\u201d after the London mayor blocked its \u00a350m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-598223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}