Martha Dalton, a recent lobbyist for the US tech company Palantir, played a senior role in Andy Burnham's successful campaign to become Prime Minister. Her company, Lodestone, worked for Palantir in 2024 and 2025.
Dalton campaigned for Burnham in the Makerfield byelection, which secured his return to parliament. She worked closely with his team on strategic communications and rebuttals, and was among supporters present when he entered Downing Street in July.
Lodestone, co-founded by Dalton, worked with Palantir on projects that included promoting its software at parliamentary events. At these events, engineers demonstrated AI-powered systems for potential use in British public services to MPs.
Dalton took six weeks of unpaid leave from Lodestone to support Burnham's campaign, stating on LinkedIn that it was "an absolute honour to work on Andy Burnham’s campaign to become Labour leader and prime minister." A spokesperson for Lodestone confirmed she had no client contact during this period.
This development comes as Palantir seeks to retain its £330m contract with NHS England for the federated data platform. Burnham's government is facing pressure to cancel the deal, with campaigners raising concerns about Palantir's work for the Israeli military and its past involvement with Donald Trump's ICE immigration crackdown.