Palantir contracts flagged as UK’s ‘unacceptable weakness’

Palantir contracts – A bipartisan group of UK lawmakers says growing reliance on Palantir could become a dangerous dependency—expensive, hard to escape, and potentially disruptive if the supplier decides to use access to force its own agenda. The Science, Innovation and Technology

For a lot of public services, the problem isn’t that a technology provider fails to deliver. It’s that, over time, they become too difficult to replace.

That fear is now driving a warning from UK politicians about Palantir. with a bipartisan group of MPs arguing that the country’s relationship with the data analytics company has grown into “an unacceptable point of weakness.” In a report published Tuesday. the 11 members of Parliament’s Science. Innovation. and Technology Committee said the UK’s ballooning reliance on Palantir’s technology could give the company overwhelming bargaining power in future negotiations.

The committee’s chair, Dame Chi Onwurah, framed the risk in blunt terms: vendor lock-in makes everything worse as the relationship stretches. “We know that with vendor lock-in, over time, we’ll get more expensive and worse services,” she told WIRED. “It’s a trap that has to be avoided.”

She also outlined a worst-case scenario in which a deeply entrenched supplier could deliberately threaten to withhold service. “That could bring public services and our economy to a halt,” Onwurah said. “That’s a huge risk.”

The lawmakers stress that their concerns are not ideological. Even so. the report says there is a “clear mismatch with UK values. ” pointing to politically charged comments made by Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel. In 2023. Thiel described the British public’s affection for the NHS as “Stockholm syndrome.” The committee also cites a 22-point manifesto tied to a recent book by Palantir CEO Alex Karp. which argues for an overriding fealty to the US and its interests.

Onwurah said the issue is what happens when the supplier’s objectives collide with the UK’s priorities. “We have a key vendor saying they will exercise technology in accordance with their political mission,” she said. “If what the UK is trying to do in our NHS or our defense does not align with Palantir’s political objectives. we clearly can’t depend upon them as a supplier.”.

To reduce the risk, the committee recommended that the National Health Service—one of Palantir’s primary partners in the UK—activate a clause in its contract next February that would terminate the relationship early.

The concern comes after the UK government began using Palantir technology in 2020. when it scrambled to map the spread of the Covid-19 virus and route medical equipment across the country. Since then. Palantir and its partners have won contracts worth a combined $750 million with the NHS and the Ministry of Defense. among others. The company has promoted its role in the UK public sector as enabling “innovation and fast-paced problem solving.”.

The report also points to other dependencies. including similar concerns about US-based cloud providers Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. and Fujitsu. the Japanese company at the center of the Post Office Horizon scandal. But it reserves its sharpest focus for Palantir, saying “Palantir concerns us most.”.

Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For months. the company’s role in sensitive work has been under heightened scrutiny. particularly around Palantir’s work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). as well as the US and Israeli militaries. The manifesto linked to Karp’s book has added fuel to the political debate inside the UK.

Donald Campbell. director of advocacy at Foxglove. a nonprofit that previously campaigned for the NHS to back out of its contract with Palantir. said the company should not be embedded in British public services. “They’re not a company that should be anywhere near British public services,” Campbell said. “Do you want to be giving a company of this kind—with these openly expressed opinions and ideologies—a central role in the UK state that it may get harder and harder to remove them from?”.

In July last year. when Palantir’s European chief Louis Mosley appeared before the committee. he tried to draw a line between the company and Thiel’s comments. Mosley said Palantir’s objective is “support democratically elected governments in delivering the mandate that they have been elected to deliver. ” and that “We represent a diversity of political views and do not take political positions as a company.”.

The committee’s report now puts that promise under a practical spotlight: even if politics and intent are contested, the committee argues that contracts and entrenched systems can still leave governments with fewer and fewer real choices—especially when the leverage shifts to the vendor.

With a clause that the committee wants the NHS to use next February, the question ahead is whether the UK will treat dependency as something that can be managed early—or whether it will discover, after contracts deepen, that “unacceptable” points of weakness were the most expensive kind to unwind.

Palantir UK Parliament Science Innovation and Technology Committee vendor lock-in NHS Ministry of Defence data analytics Alex Karp Peter Thiel contract clause cybersecurity ICE cloud providers Microsoft Amazon Web Services Fujitsu