London /PNN/

PSC welcomes the news that a £50m Metropolitan police deal with the notorious US tech company Palantir has been blocked by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. Prior to today’s announcement, over 1,000 PSC supporters in London emailed the Mayor asking him to block the contract. It would have been Palantir’s largest ever contract in British policing.  

In January 2024, Palantir entered into a “strategic partnership” with Israel’s Ministry of Defence to develop technology and tools to be used in “war-related missions.”  This technology has been used to accelerate Israel’s genocide in Gaza, by using AI technology and surveillance to rapidly generate targets for its bombing campaigns which have destroyed entire neighbourhoods, including schools and hospitals. 

The Mayor’s spokesperson said that London residents only wanted public money to go to those that “share the values of our city”.  

Alongside blocking this contract, PSC is calling on the Mayor to now intervene to cancel the existing £500k Met Police contract to use Palantir technology in the force’s “professional service function” signed in February.  

Further, PSC is calling on the British government to to cancel all contracts with Palantir, including NHS England’s £330million contract to develop and maintain the Federated Data Platform to store patient medical data, which is opposed by health workers, patients and human rights groups. 

Lewis Backon, PSC Campaigns Officer, said:“It is welcome that following our campaigning the Mayor of London has intervened to stop a £50million Met Police contract with Palantir.

Palantir supplies Israel with AI and surveillance technology used as part of its genocide in Gaza, and wider regime of military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians. Companies enabling human rights abuses across the globe should not receive a single penny of public money.

We call on the Mayor to intervene to cancel the existing Met Police contract with Palantir, and for the British government to take note and cancel Palantir's contracts, including in our NHS.”