The UK has been facing growing pressure over its decision to award large government contracts to Palantir Technologies, a US-based data and artificial intelligence company.
Partially funded by the CIA at its inception, the company has faced heavy scrutiny after receiving a £330 million ($413m) contract with NHS England in 2023, which is up for renewal in 2027.
It was also recently awarded a £240 million deal with the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) in December, three times more than a previous contract signed in 2022.
Palantir entered into a strategic partnership with the MoD in September, in which it pledged a £1.5 billion investment to “boost military AI” and to “work together to transform lethality in the battlefield”, according to a government press release.
Aspects of the deal included developing a so-called “kill chain”, which uses advanced data management and AI to better strike “enemy target[s]”.
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This increased integration of the tech firm within the UK’s health service and armed forces has raised alarm among campaigners, who point to the company’s involvement in the genocide in Gaza and US President Donald Trump’s lethal campaign against unauthorised immigration.
British MPs have also raised concerns about Palantir’s defence contracts following an investigation that revealed the Swiss army had rejected the company over fears that US intelligence agencies would gain access to sensitive data.
Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, told The Guardian in December 2025 that the government “needs to undertake transparent due diligence” in reviewing contracts with Palantir.
A number of medical advocacy organisations, including Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) and the British Medical Association (BMA), have been vocal in opposing the company’s NHS contract, which would create a Federated Data Platform (FDP) to centralise patient information and facilitate health trend analysis.
Although developing this technology would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery, medical workers have questioned whether Palantir is the right partner for the job, given concerns over its ties to intelligence agencies and involvement in surveillance operations.
If developed further, Palantir would become integral to NHS operations.
Medical data used for military apps
The BMA passed a resolution in June 2025 declaring Palantir an “unacceptable choice of partner” for the NHS.
Dr David Wrigley, the BMA’s deputy chair, said in the statement: “If Palantir’s software is being used to target individuals in immigration enforcement and is being deployed in active conflict zones, then that’s completely incompatible with the values we uphold in the delivery of care.”
David Nicholl, spokesperson for DAUK, told Middle East Eye that “one of DAUK’s key missions is patient safety, and the involvement of Palantir in the NHS is having an adverse effect on patient trust in how their data is handled”.
In fact, a poll commissioned by DAUK found 48 percent of people would likely opt out of the FDP if Palantir managed their data.
Such opt-outs could have negative ramifications, including inhibiting the treatment of diseases.
‘One of DAUK’s key missions is patient safety, and the involvement of Palantir in the NHS is having an adverse effect on patient trust’
– David Nicholl, DAUK spokesperson
Nicholl pointed to evidence uncovered by 404 Media showing that Elite, the Palantir application used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to raid neighbourhoods, receives data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to find people’s addresses.
The app “brings up a dossier on each person” and “provides a confidence score on the person’s current address” using this data.
Palantir is also developing software designed to predict the likelihood of someone committing a crime, technology which critics argue risks entrenching existing biases.
According to Dr Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne of the Health Workers for a Free Palestine coalition, Palantir software initially tested on Palestinians is being “exported for repression around the world”.
Palantir supplies the Israeli military and intelligence agencies with advanced targeting capabilities that allow drone-fired missiles to target journalists, aid workers and civilians, actively engaging in what Israel has called the world’s first “AI war”.
For example, Israel reportedly used Palantir software in its 2024 Lebanon attacks, which killed dozens and wounded thousands with exploding pagers.
Dr Osborne highlights that, as with ICE in the US, Palantir’s NHS data system, Foundry, shares data with Gotham, the software used for military operations.
“Whilst there is always the risk they could pass on our health data, for example, to the US intelligence agencies, the bigger risk is how they could help the British government strengthen its own state violence,” Osborne said.
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While Palantir did not respond to MEE’s request for comment, its website states: “All Gotham applications and many Foundry applications implement some form of cross-application interactivity.”
Nevertheless, Louis Mosley, Palantir’s UK chief executive, told The Guardian that doctors were putting “ideology over patient interest” in criticising Palantir’s ethical conduct.
Mosley has condemned “woke” critics of his company’s suite of tools designed to both kill people and facilitate their medical care.
Among Palantir’s critics is Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, who condemned the British government’s dealings with the firm at a protest outside its London offices on Thursday.
Polanski delivered a letter to Palantir chief executive Alex Karp intended to “put Palantir on notice”.
Speaking to MEE, Polanski pointed to the firm’s “deeply authoritarian nature”, saying that “it is pretty dystopian that they have anything to do with our National Health Service at all”.
Polanski highlighted Palantir’s track record: enabling genocide in Gaza and assisting ICE in using deadly force against US citizens, which has led to the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
Palantir’s founder, Peter Thiel, has famously stated: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
‘Your technology kills Palestinians.’
‘That’s true, mostly terrorists.’Palantir CEO Alex Karp found himself challenged by a pro-Palestine protester pointing out that his company provides the Israeli army with artificial intelligence technology to ‘strike targets in Gaza’. pic.twitter.com/zR7tKBpk4Y
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 4, 2025
The billionaire tech baron, who co-founded PayPal, is known for his obsessive hunt for the Antichrist in the modern world, a quest that has seen him become a patron of far-right figures in the US and Europe.
Thiel is also opposed to a public health service in general, having previously said that the NHS “makes people sick”.
Karp has openly said that Palantir’s work in the UK is part of their mission “to disrupt… and when it is necessary to scare enemies and on occasion kill them”.
These contracts reflect Palantir’s own ideology: to bring military technological surveillance programmes used in Israel and the US to the UK.
How did Palantir get involved in the NHS?
DAUK has launched a legal challenge to the deal, but so far its concerns, and those of medical workers on the ground, have largely been ignored.
Sam Smith, policy coordinator at health data privacy group medConfidential, told MEE that “NHS England does not care what your hospital thinks, they have effectively told your hospital: if you want budget next year, you will use Palantir”, regardless of whether it helps patients or the institution.
‘NHS England does not care what your hospital thinks, they have effectively told your hospital: if you want budget next year, you will use Palantir’
– Sam Smith, medConfidential policy coordinator
Smith added that individual trusts can still opt for alternative suppliers to ensure a resilient supply chain rather than a monopolistic one, thereby avoiding the vulnerabilities that come with relying on a single data manufacturer.
Right now, removing the FDP is easy, but once Cancer 360 – Palantir’s tool for cancer treatment pathways – has been integrated across the NHS without alternatives, withdrawing becomes very difficult, Smith explained.
Palantir had its eye on the NHS’ world-renowned data set for a long time, but its opportunity came during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it offered a cash-strapped health service a £1 contract to track the spread of the disease.
Since then, the company has steadily increased the value of its contracts and is keen to establish a monopoly over data-management software, making it integral to the operation of British healthcare.
“Palantir are working as fast as they can to make [pulling out] as hard as possible,” Smith said.
Duncan McCann, head of tech and data at The Good Law Project, a UK legal campaign group opposing the contract since 2023, explained that Palantir representatives were “masters” at lobbying, able to “push themselves in” once they entered the NHS and take advantage of a cash-strapped system eager to integrate technology without upfront spending.
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Similar to a free-trial, subscription-based model, Palantir offers services for free initially and then raises prices once they become indispensable.
A major concern for McCann is that NHS staff are coding specifically for Foundry and Palantir systems, meaning “all this investment we’re making in systems and IT, once we stop using the contract, it’s gone”, and leaving would require organisations to “start from scratch”.
“The big fear is that… this is actually a one-way street,” McCann explained. “The further you go down it, the more costs will be attached to extricating ourselves”, both in terms of losing the existing system and having to build a new one.
He warns that pushing too far risks becoming “locked in forever”, citing a US police force that exited its Palantir contract only to find the company took its systems with it.
McCann said there is “hope that we can galvanise support” against Palantir this year, ahead of the three-year contract review in 2027.
As part of the campaign, 25,000 people have contacted their trusts, with hospitals in Manchester and Leeds opting to prioritise local, publicly owned alternatives.
MEE contacted NHS England for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
