Greens: End Palantir's vice like grip on the government

Green MPs have written to the Cabinet Secretary to demand that the government scrap its NHS and MoD contracts with spy tech firm Palantir. The MPs have also called for an independent inquiry into Peter Mandelson’s involvement in contracts between the UK Government and Palantir, and to review the extent of UK dependence on private contractors such as Palantir to secure the UK’s digital sovereignty.

Green MP, Sian Berry, said:

Palantir’s vice-like grip on our Government, and the role played by disgraced Peter Mandelson in brokering it, must be investigated urgently and, meanwhile, all government contracts with this Trump-supporting spy tech company suspended immediately.

The Prime Minister has questions to answer about how this military surveillance outfit, with clear ties to Mandelson’s own lobbying firm, has been handed record-breaking multi million pound contracts from public money without competition.

It would be unbelievably inappropriate for any member of this Government to attend  Wednesday’s red carpet party for this company. It already was, given how much we know about how Palantir has facilitated genocide in Gaza and been complicit in fascist deportations in the USA. But in the light of these contract revelations, these social contacts become even more unacceptable.

The letter states: Palantir technology has reportedly been used by U.S. immigration authorities to profile and target migrants and has been used by the Israeli military in Gaza – it has no place in our NHS or any of our public services… Palantir is now deeply embedded in the NHS and Ministry of Defence – and the longer they are in place, the harder and more expensive it becomes to remove them and the more the risk of poor value for money increases.

Green MPS are calling on the government to:

• Conduct an internal and independent inquiry into Mandelson’s involvement in contracts between the UK Government and Palantir and publish the findings, including whether Mandelson shared privileged information with Palantir and the extent to which he used his role in Government for personal gain
• Scrap its NHS and MoD contracts with Palantir at the earliest opportunity 
• Review UK dependence on contractors such as Palantir to secure the UK’s digital sovereignty