47,000 patients oppose Palantir NHS data deal
Palantir holds NHS patient records and a 'strategic partnership' with the Israeli military. Andy Burnham won't say what happens when the contract comes up for renewal.
Half of England’s NHS trusts now feed patient records into a system run by Palantir, the US firm the UN says helps compile Israeli military kill lists in Gaza.
The Federated Data Platform, a seven-year £330m contract Palantir signed with NHS England in November 2023, is meant to speed up scheduling and discharge. In May, NHS England drew up plans to give Palantir staff “unlimited access” to identifiable patient records, a shift its own officials warned risked “loss of public confidence.” More than 47,000 patients have written to trust boards opposing it. The BMA has told doctors to limit their engagement with the platform. “Patients may avoid seeking care over fears about how their data will be used,” said the BMA’s Dr David Wrigley.
The firm behind the platform
Palantir announced a “strategic partnership” with the Israeli military in January 2024. Its chief executive, Alex Karp, called the work “operationally crucial” and said he was “exceedingly proud” of it. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese named Palantir complicit in the “occupation and ongoing genocide in Palestine” in June 2025. Amnesty International listed it that September among 15 companies enabling Israel’s “genocide, occupation, apartheid.” Norway’s sovereign wealth fund divested its Palantir holdings. Palantir denies running the specific “Lavender” targeting database; it does not deny the wider military partnership Karp himself boasted about.
Whitehall’s revolving door
On Thursday, the Department of Health’s permanent secretary, Samantha Jones, recused herself from all decisions on the Palantir contract after it emerged she had advised Carnall Farrar, a firm in Palantir’s winning consortium, between 2023 and 2024. The Civil Service Commission separately reprimanded her for failing to seek clearance for consultancy work with four healthcare firms. She is one of at least 32 senior officials Palantir has hired from the MoD, NHS, Home Office and secret services since 2012. Peter Mandelson, whose own firm had worked for Palantir, arranged Keir Starmer’s meeting with founder Peter Thiel. Wes Streeting met the firm privately last June.
Burnham’s non-answer
Andy Burnham says he’ll put “the public before the interests of US big tech” and gave Palantir no contracts in nine years as Greater Manchester mayor. He is “not minded” to favour the firm now. He has made no commitment on the contract already running through the NHS, the one that matters. The Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has told government to use the break clause and exit; ministers must notify Palantir by December, five months before Burnham is expected in Downing Street.
Thiel has told his own audience he no longer believes “freedom and democracy are compatible,” and dismissed Britain’s attachment to its health service as “Stockholm syndrome.” Burnham has not been asked, on the record, whether he intends to hand that man’s company another year of NHS records. Someone should ask him.
