MPs warn Palantir influence over British state is ‘unacceptable point of weakness’

MPs from the influential science committee have warned AI war firm Palantir’s increasing power over the UK state is an “unacceptable weakness”. The committee also noted the firm, which is very close to the current Keir Starmer government, espouses openly far-right politics.

The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee urged the government to:

exercise the 2027 break clause in the NHS Federated Data Platform Contract with Palantir and either develop an in-house replacement or seek an alternative UK provider.

The MPs also rejected the idea Palantir was the only firm capable of providing services the UK needs:

The report argues that vendor lock-in should not be seen as inevitable and calls for a strategy to end lock-in across the public sector, diversify suppliers and strengthen digital resilience.

The UK military, police, NHS and, allegedly, the Telegraph newspaper have started to use Palantir technology. The firm is also involved in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and maintains a permanent desk in southern Israel. Trump’s paramilitary immigration operations also use the firm’s gear.

The Canary reported on 2 June that UK officials are even using Palantir software to decide what Palantir technology to buy to fight future wars.

And as the Canary reported on 20 April, Palantir’s ‘manifesto’ is a collection of far-right tropes more suited to a far-right manosphere podcast than a multinational arms firm:

For example, Point 21 reads:

Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.

While Point 22 is a fascist-accented lament for Western white supremacist ‘culture’:

We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?

Palantir burrowed deep into British infrastructure

The science committee accepted some of these issues, though arguably did not go far enough.

MPs noted:

The relationship between the public sector and Palantir has attracted increasing public attention, in part because of its supply of software to the US military, and use by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

Adding:

Comments about the NHS made by the company’s co-founder Peter Thiel, and a 22-point manifesto published by the company have also raised concerns.

The MPs also called bullshit on UK Palantir boss Louis Mosley’s defence of the firm. Mosley “distanced himself”:

from Thiel’s comments and told us that the company existed “to support democratically-elected governments in delivering the mandate that they have been elected to deliver”.

Yet, the committee noted:

The company has published a 22-point manifesto based on the writing of CEO Alexander Karp, which argued that “the ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

Adding:

This is despite Louis Mosley telling us that the company “is not… political. We represent a diversity of political views and do not take political positions as a company”.

Mismatch of values?

The report authors concluded that:

 Palantir should not have such a significant role in the UK public sector, and that it is far from the only company capable of providing the data analysis ‘middleware’ required by public bodies.

As well as scandal over Palantir’s military and immigration uses:

Its co-founder has criticised the concept of a national health service and the company has issued a manifesto that makes explicitly political arguments, undermining what the head of their UK and European business told us.

They said there was a “clear mismatch with UK values”.

This is debatable of course. The report makes no mention of Palantir’s role in Gaza — an atrocity the UK is deeply implicated in. Yet the report does raise several important points. Palantir’s accelerating power over UK police, military and even health infrastructure should worry us all. And the MPs are correct to say the plug needs to be pulled as soon as possible on this Trojan Horse for tech billionaires with a fascistic agenda.

Featured image via Leon Neal/Getty Images