By GERRARD VANNAR
We are reprinting two articles by Gerrard Vannar that appeared in the online journal of the International Socialist League, the British section of the International Workers League – Fourth International. The articles give background behind the widespread protests against the entry of the Miami-based spy-tech company Palantir into a number of British government departments. These include the National Health Service as well as police agencies. Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, a prominent supporter of Trump and far-right causes.
The U.S. military-tech company Palantir has been tasked with amalgamating data across NHS [National Health Service] England into what is known as the federated platform (FDP). Palantir’s CV boasts clients who are among the most violent organisations of Western imperialism: the CIA, Homeland Security, and ICE in the U.S.; the IDF in the Zionist entity; and the Department of Defence in the UK. 
The firm specialises in making disparate, messy data sets coherent. Foundary, the name for the civilian software, is interoperable with Gotham, the equivalent for military systems. This has allowed, for example, ICE to use health data to identify, track, detain, and deport migrants in the U.S. In February, Reform UK announced policy to build an ICE-style force that can ‘relentlessly identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK…[a Reform government] will automatically share data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police.’ The Labour Party is laying the technical infrastructure ahead of time to make that possible.
A 2025 open letter from the NHS Chief Data and Analytical Officer Network concluded that the NHS already has ‘similar tools in use that presently exceed the capability and application of what the FDP is currently trying to develop or roll out at a system level.’ This leaves the argument espoused by proponents that the FDP will improve wait times, patient care, and efficiency in the NHS ringing hollow. Rather, the FDP is part of the ruling class’s cynical and sinister attempt to sell off the NHS bit by bit until there is nothing left.
The fightback to block the rollout of Palantir’s FDP is well and truly on across England. Health workers have been spearheading the campaign with significant support from health justice groups and Palestine solidarity groups. Last year, the BMA (the doctor’s union) passed a motion rejecting the FDP and resolved to lobby relevant NHS bodies to terminate the contract. The union is currently developing guidance for members on when and how to refuse to use the FDP without compromising patient safety while at work. This is with the view to move ‘away from the platform entirely’ when a suitable alternative has been developed.
Such an alternative exists in Greater Manchester, where a grassroots alliance of staff, patients, and local community groups came together to block the rollout at hospitals in their area. They successfully managed to get the integrated care board (ICB, the bureaucratic unit responsible for administering the rollout) to halt the process and work with a local firm (albeit a private one) to develop an alternative. The ICB specifically cited grassroots opposition, including from the local Unite branch, when justifying their decision.
Unison has also been active on this front and raised concern back in 2023 when the contract was announced. Following a motion passed in the London NHS branch, General Secretary Andrea Egan sent a letter to the Health Secretary Wes Streeting earlier this month. It detailed their opposition to Palantir due to their role in powering Israeli war crimes in Palestine, deportations in the U.S., and paying an ‘odd’ amount of tax in Britain.
The Green Party has also made this a priority, saying they will ‘use every means at [their] disposal, including that of [their] many thousands of members to get [Palantir] out of the NHS.’ Greens members are already reaching out to local campaigners to develop alliances.
While keeping Palantir out of the NHS is certainly worthwhile in and of itself, this defensive campaign needs to link concretely to offensive struggles in the pursuit of health justice in the UK and abroad. The strategic decisions taken now are incredibly consequential for what becomes possible in the future.
There are currents in the campaign eager to use it to build confidence, structure, and momentum that can be deployed in other struggles: around border violence against migrants; against British imperialism overseas, in West Asia in particular; and for a healthcare system under the control of workers and users, for example. A base of health workers that can take initiative, strategise across sectoral and trade union divides, and connect political struggles to economic demands would be well placed to serve the broader movement of the working class in Britain and internationally.
Time will tell how the more radical currents within the campaign will fare against the reformists.
- Palantir out of the NHS!
- Build patient-staff alliances!
- Abolish border violence and imperialism in healthcare!
First publishedherebyInternational Socialist League(Britain, IWL)
No Palantir in NHS – Patient Data in Danger
By GERRARD VANNAR
Palantir, a U.S. AI and tech firm, is set to roll out a platform for amalgamating all patient data in NHS England. In 2021, they were awarded a £300 million contract for the project. And yet four years on, just 15 percent of NHS trusts are using it and there is sizeable pushback from NHS workers and patients. So who is Palantir? How did we get to where we are now?
Corporate bastion of imperialism
Palantir was set up in 2003 by U.S. tech czars Alex Karp and Peter Thiel. Early investment came from the CIA’s capital investment wing, In-Q-Tel, which helps firms working with US state intelligence get off the ground. Their rise has been steady, cutting their teeth providing intelligence and AI services for U.S. agencies such as Homeland Security, ICE, state police forces, and the FBI. As an example, Palantir powers deportations through its ‘ImmigrationOS’ tool which is designed to enable ICE agents to identify, track, and deport noncitizens using data from social security, tax declarations, and other state databases.
The company shamelessly chooses clients that advance US imperialism and Western hegemony. This orientation is clearly a reflection of the leadership’s ideology. Karp’s national chauvinism is frequently on display. For example, in a November 2025 letter to shareholders, he wrote, ‘It is and was a mistake to casually proclaim the equality of all cultures and cultural values. Some have proven to be wondrous and generative. Others destructive and deeply regressive.’ He defends the U.S., saying it is the centre of western culture from which other junior partners orient, as a falconer to the falcon. Palantir is not simply profit chasing by propping up US interests, they are doing the most to keep Western imperialism afloat through crisis after crisis.
As an auxiliary force for imperialism, Palantir predictably took their services to Israel where they are now deeply involved with the IDF at an operational level. Details are kept tightly wrapped of course, but a UN report suggested their software is being used in ‘real-time battlefield integration for decision making.’ In other words, Palantir’s AI tools are being used to analyse areas and identify targets for the IDF. Karp’s biography further boasted of Palantir’s role in providing intelligence for the 2024 coordinated pager attacks in Lebanon. The attack was significant not only for its egregious disregard for civilian life and international law, but also for how technically sophisticated its planning and execution was.
The new front: healthcare
Palantir has also started working in civilian sectors in recent years. During the 2020 pandemic, they secured a contract to build a covid database for a token sum of £1. Regular procurement procedure was abandoned, and the NHS executives rushed the deal through. Having got one foot in the door, Palantir’s remit massively expanded with the deal a year later to build a nationwide platform for all patient data known as the federated data platform (FDP). Up to now, patient data is organised at a trust level, making it clunky to transfer information if patients move trusts, or if someone has to attend A&E while travelling to another part of the country, for example. Palantir being the chosen firm to ‘fix’ this very real issue raises several serious issues.
Privatisation of the NHS
The British government has been selling off bits of the NHS for decades and in the 10 Year Health Plan from July last year they finally owned up to actively seeking ‘partnership’ with private providers. A report by Keep Our NHS Public found private sector outsourcing of NHS clinical care, support staff, and administration has a litany of general consequences including compromised patient safety, wider health inequalities, poorer work conditions for staff, and services cost for everyone. The trend continues in the massive sell off of patient data.
Geopolitics
Palantir’s profit motive naturally prompts one to ask what they would do with the world’s largest health data set. Pithy assurances from its execs that they will not sell off patient data to third parties do not ease one’s mind. It might not even be their decision. The company is, of course, headquartered in the US and subject to US laws. Recent efforts by the US pharmaceutical giants and the Trump administration to strong arm the UK and other supposed allies into paying eye-watering prices for medicines point to a dangerous situation on the horizon: a Trump-supporting US firm holding all patient records in Britain could be used as leverage in bad faith negotiations to extort revenue for the US capitalist class.
In late 2025, negotiations between the Swiss Army and Palantir for a potential deal collapsed after the Swiss released a report warning their data would be at risk of foreign access and they would be locked in long term due to administrative dependence on Palantir. The UK government has dismissed similar warnings when challenged on the NHS contract.
Imperial borders on the wards?
Palantir has developed specialist expertise in intelligence gathering of an enemy in war. Their presence in the health sector is not only morally depraved, it brings the most violent and punitive parts of the British state into the hospitals and GPs around the country. One feature of Palantir’s project is the so-called ‘drag-and-drop’ function between its civilian software and military software (known as Foundry and Gotham, respectively). Integrating the two mean that one person’s health record could be linked, through the FDP, to their other records in the police, immigration, or welfare, for example. It is entirely conceivable that the Home Office could be rapidly notified if someone who has overstayed their visa presents to hospital thus triggering the sequence of events leading to deportation, much like the ImmigrationOS model in the US.
Fightback
Health workers are organising a fightback. Health Workers for a Free Palestine is working with Corporate Watch, Keep Our NHS Public, and other grassroots groups to prevent the rollout of the Palantir contract. There have been some significant wins along the way. In Manchester, the integrated care board (ICB, the bureaucratic body made up of a few Trusts that is responsible for the deciding on the rollout in local areas) has refused to use the FDP. Instead, they’ve developed a local alternative after staff and patients led a mass campaign in the local area. The BMA passed a motion last year which rejected the FDP which has opened opportunities for rank-and-file members to carry the campaign into their local Trusts. Activists in other unions are following suit. Patient-staff alliances are growing across the country to try and replicate these successes. Such formations will be critical in the broader push to re-nationalise the NHS under the control of workers and users.
We call for:
• Build patient-staff alliances to fight for the NHS
• Defend the NHS and Palestine from Palantir
• Build the Fight Back
• For a fully comprehensive, integrated, publicly accountable and publicly provided, free at the point of delivery NHS, based on need without privatised franchises.
• Re-nationalise the NHS and social care under the control of workers and users.
Keep up to date with the campaign at https://nopalantir.org.uk/ @hw4fp.uk on Instagram
The post Britain: The campaign against Palantir first appeared on Workers’ Voice/La Voz de los Trabajadores.
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