Protesting against Coventry city council’s contract with Palantir
Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of US spy tech firm Palantir has his sights set on the NHS—and that should terrify us all.
Thiel is up to his neck in providing surveillance equipment for the genocidal Israeli military and for Donald Trump’s killer Ice agents. This man should not be allowed anywhere near our NHS.
“Highways create traffic jams, welfare creates poverty, schools make people dumb and the NHS makes people sick,” Thiel said in a speech at the Oxford Union debating society in January 2023.
“In theory, you just rip the whole thing up from the ground and start over.”
Those words weren’t enough to make the Tory government think twice about granting Palantir a £330 million contract in 2023.
The surveillance and artificial intelligence firm was contracted to run the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDP). It was designed to bring together information from different hospitals to help with diagnosis and planning services
And, Palantir argued, there was no danger of patients’ private data being misused, because all information on the FDP would be anonymised and so, in theory, untraceable.
The contract with Palantir was set to run until 2030. But there is a break clause written into the contract that could be triggered as early as March 2027.
As details of the deal with Palantir have come to light, there are increasingly loud calls for the contract to be cancelled.
This is not just down to concerns about patients’ rights to privacy. The tech firm’s involvement with Ice in the US and the Israeli military have also caused outrage.
But Andy Burnham’s Labour government won’t be pressured into cancelling the contract without a fight.
Socialist Worker spoke to activists and trade unionists involved in campaigns against Palantir about their opposition to Thiel and his tech firm—and, crucially, how we can beat them.
Since the contract was signed, more than half of NHS hospital trusts in England have adopted the FDP. But it’s not been taken up without opposition.
Jordan, branch secretary of Unison at the Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London, spoke to Socialist Worker about the campaign against Palantir in her workplace.
“As trade unionists, we’ve written to the management of the hospital several times, demanding that they stop using this software. Their response is that there are some elements of it that have been implemented already, and others that haven’t been adopted yet.
“But what I want to stress is that Unison members in this hospital were against Palantir in the first place.
“And it’s a fight we’ve kept up. Only yesterday, we sent another letter to the hospital management, demanding that they stop using Palantir’s software.
“That wasn’t from Unison alone, but from every trade union active at Homerton—the BMA and Unite as well.”
Jordan is convinced that the letter writing campaign has had an effect.
“We think the trust is uncomfortable with the whole situation. And that’s more and more the case as details about Palantir have come to light since the deal was signed,” she explained.
The absence of any scrutiny over the contract being signed in the first place was shocking to Jordan and her co-workers.
“At this hospital, when any contractor is brought in to do work, there’s a pretty rigorous process that’s gone through. Recently, for example, the hospital put out a contract for a new catering provider.
“Four different companies put their offers in, they were scrutinised and we were invited to go to meetings to hear what they were offering.
“Now, I should stress that I don’t agree with outsourcing. But at least there was a pretty transparent process in this case.
“But with Palantir, which is a huge contract, there was no competition, no scrutiny whatsoever by the government. That was absolutely shocking,” Jordan explained
And it’s become even more shocking as a clearer picture of Palantir and its dealings with the British state have come to light.
After Keir Starmer entered 10 Downing Street in July 2024, figures in the Labour government continued to work closely with Palantir.
Britain’s ambassador to the US at the time was Peter Mandelson, an associate of deceased and disgraced billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson lobbied for Thiel’s company, which was a client of his Global Counsel lobbying firm.
This included taking then prime minister Keir Starmer for a guided tour of Palantir’s offices in Washington, DC, in February 2025.
But it’s not just dodgy dealings that are fuelling the campaign against Palantir in the Homerton.
Palantir supplies drones to the Israeli military for use in its genocidal war on Palestine.
This is part of a “strategic defence partnership” with Israel which was struck in January 2024.
Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, has stated, proudly, that he is the “most publicly supportive CEO of Israel.”
“I think Israel is on the side of good,” he added.
“Across the NHS as a whole, it has been difficult to campaign around Palestine,” Jordan explained. But because of Palantir’s involvement with the Israeli military, it’s a way to at least start these discussions.”
In addition to the letter writing campaign, there have been days of action and demonstrations for Palestine outside the Homerton.
“I was so proud to see a protest in solidarity with Palestine in front of the hospital. It’s this sort of action that makes it crystal clear to the chief executives of the trust that the public, the people who use this hospital, don’t like the idea of Palantir being connected with the Homerton,” Jordan said.
“We started off talking to people about Palantir and Palestine, but pretty quickly conversations about the company’s involvement with Ice, and racist policing in the US, came up.”
Ice is one of Palantir’s biggest clients in the US.
Hannah Lucal, a researcher with Just Futures Law has written, “Palantir has been used in Ice’s day-to-day operations for data surveillance around deportations and that’s been true for over a decade.”
“This was especially the case after Trump’s attacks on Minneapolis, sending Ice troops en masse into the city,” Jordan explained.
At the Whittington Hospital, in Islington, north London, a similar campaign against Palantir has started up.
It’s building on the foundations of an earlier campaign against cuts proposed to accident and emergency and maternity services at the hospital.
When rumours of more cuts began making the rounds, the campaign called a public meeting in November of last year.
“We discussed cuts, but people kept asking about Palantir. It wasn’t something we knew much about, so we had to get up to speed pretty quickly,”
Shirley Franklin, the joint chair of the Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition (DWHC), told Socialist Worker.
“Working with the Good Law Project, we lobbied the hospital trust to stop using Palantir’s software.
“We also lobbied Islington Council. And we got local MP Jeremy Corbyn involved in the campaign as well.
“And, while we were out campaigning in the local elections in May 2026, we were able to bring some Palestine activists into the campaign as well,” Shirley explained.
DWHC won a victory in 2010, forcing the Labour health secretary at the time, one Andy Burnham, to put a stop to the proposed cuts.
And that success gives Shirley hope for this fight.
“We’ve beaten Burnham once. We can do it again. And we’ve got a card to play. When he was mayor of Greater Manchester, he didn’t sign any contracts with Palantir.
“So, if that’s what works for Manchester, surely that works for the rest of the country,” she argued.
That campaign also provides encouragement for today.
“If you’re on the front foot, if you’re proactive in these fights, you can shift things,” she said.
Palantir’s contract with the NHS is one of its biggest in Britain—but the company is involved in much more than the health service
In Coventry, the city council recently renewed a contract with Palantir.
“It started off as a trial in 2025, and it was used to deal with data from casework in children’s and adult social services,” Unison union member Trevor told Socialist Worker.
“That contract was worth £500,000. It’s since been renewed, for £750,000.
“And Palantir’s software is now being used more widely in the council. It’s now used to deal with data for children who need special educational needs and disability (Send) support.”
Trevor, like Jordan, was shocked by the absence of any transparency in the awarding of the contract.
“There were no negotiations with any trade unions before the contract was signed.
“And, immediately after it was signed, there were Palantir staff working inside the city council, in the same building as the mayor and the administration.
“This has caused considerable concerns that Palantir might have access to sensitive data,” Trevor explained.
But, shocking as it was, it spurred campaigners and trade unionists into action.
“MP Zarah Sultana and Grace Lewis, a former councillor locally, started up a campaign against Palantir.
“We’ve protested outside the city council, with support from trade unions—the NEU, UCU and Unison especially—and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and launched a petition.”
And, as elsewhere, the concerns about Palantir in Coventry, are far‑reaching.
“When the deal with them was first done, it was a Labour administration. After the last local elections, it’s under no overall control.
“And Reform UK is the second largest bloc on the council,” Trevor said.
“Reform UK is extremely supportive of Palantir. But you only have to look to the example of Ice in the US, to see where that leads.”
Palantir is a threat not just to the NHS, but public services as a whole in Britain. But there is an opportunity to push them back—by bringing together campaigns against austerity, against racism and in solidarity with Palestine.
On 1 October, there will be a chance to do that and to link up campaigns against Palantir worldwide.
Amnesty International has called for an international day of action against the company. And already there are demonstrations and protests planned across Britain, including in Coventry, and at the Homerton and Whittington hospitals.
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