A cross-party group British politicians are raising the alarm over the country’s partnership with the data analytics company Palantir.
In a report released Tuesday, 11 members of Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee warned that the country’s growing reliance on Palantir’s technology “represents an unacceptable point of weakness” that could give the company overwhelming bargaining power in future negotiations.
“We know that with supplier lock-in, we will see more expensive and worse services over time,” Dame Chi Onwurah, chairwoman of the committee and member of parliament, tells WIRED. “It’s a trap that needs to be avoided.”
In a worst-case scenario, an entrenched supplier could threaten to withhold services to impose its will, Onwurah believes. “It could bring public services and our economy to a halt,” he says. “It’s a huge risk.”
While the commission says its objections to Palantir are not ideologically motivated, the report also describes “clear divergences from British values.” He points to the politically charged comments of Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who in 2023 described the British public’s attachment to the NHS as “Stockholm syndrome”—and a 22-point manifesto based on CEO Alex Karp’s recent book that advocates an overriding loyalty to the United States and its interests.
“We have a key supplier who says they will use the technology in line with their political mission,” Onwurah says. “If what the UK is trying to do in our NHS or our defense is not consistent with Palantir’s political objectives, we clearly cannot rely on it as a supplier.”
To minimize the risk, the committee recommended that the National Health Service, one of Palantir’s main partners in the UK, activate a clause in its contract in February next year that would mean an early termination of the relationship.
The UK government began using Palantir’s technology in 2020 as it scrambled map the spread of the Covid-19 virus and prepare medical equipment throughout the country. Since then, Palantir and its partners have won contracts with Palantir worth a total of $750 million NHS and Ministry of Defenseamong others. The company touted its ability to enable “innovation and rapid problem solving” in the UK public sector.
The report found similar dependence on US cloud service providers Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, and Fujitsu, a Japanese company at the center of the market Horizon post office scandal. But “Palantir concerns us most,” the committee wrote.
Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The relationship has recently received increasing attention due to the company’s work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as the U.S. and Israeli militaries. The manifesto based on Karp’s book further inflamed concerns about the company’s policies.
“This is not a company that should be anywhere near British public services,” says Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at Foxglove, a not-for-profit organization that previously urged the NHS to withdraw from its deal with Palantir. “Do you want to give a company of this nature – with these openly expressed opinions and ideologies – a central role in the British state from which it will become increasingly difficult to remove it?”
Appearance before the committee in July last yearLouis Mosley, who heads Palantir’s European division, distanced the company from Thiel’s comments about the NHS. Palantir’s goal is “to support democratically elected governments in carrying out the mandate for which they were elected,” he said. “We represent a diversity of political views and as a company we do not take political positions.”