US company Palantir has secured contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds with various British state entities, including the Ministry of Defence, several police forces, the Financial Conduct Authority, the atomic weapons establishment, and the NHS. The company reportedly spends significantly on securing political access.
Palantir currently employs more than 30 former UK ministers and officials, among them former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, who is a senior vice-president. Concerns have been raised regarding how doors were opened for the company, including an unrecorded meeting in 2019 between Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel.
In 2025, a meeting was brokered by Peter Mandelson, then UK ambassador to the US, between Keir Starmer and Palantir's global and UK chief executives. This meeting was not declared on transparency registers. A few months later, Palantir secured a £241m contract with the Ministry of Defence without an open tender.
NHS England has granted Palantir "unlimited access" to patient data. Identifiable patient data is typically visible only to those directly involved in a patient's care or with the patient's informed consent, leading to widespread concerns about how this data might be used.