Palantir Lobbied Minister to Bring GP Records Into NHS Platform
Palantir pressed a health minister to consider widening its NHS software to GP records, even though such data was expressly left out of its existing contract. Doctors say the move could damage patients' trust.
What the messages show
The campaign group Foxglove obtained the WhatsApp messages under the Freedom of Information Act and shared them with the Guardian. They appear to be between Palantir's UK boss, Louis Mosley, and the former health minister Zubir Ahmed, and run from July 2025 to March 2026.
In February this year, Palantir argued that "the logic of joining up primary and secondary [care] data is unarguable" and called its software ideal for the job. It listed possible benefits, including faster access to GPs, better management of frail patients and more effective preventive care, and said the platform would keep data under local control.
The company also told the minister to get ahead of likely political opposition from doctors and critics such as Green leader Zack Polanski and Your Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. It added that the platform would deliver more, faster, with the right ministerial sponsorship.
A contract that excludes GP data
Palantir runs the federated data platform for NHS England under a £330m contract, which it says has helped cut surgery waiting times and discharge delays. GP data is outside that contract. When Rishi Sunak's government announced the deal three years ago, it said GP data would not be part of the national platform.
In one message, a Palantir executive advised that "the politics [of using GP data] is not straightforward". The executive's name is redacted in the documents from the Department of Health and Social Care, but Palantir did not deny it was Mosley.
One message has the minister praising a BBC One Sunday politics appearance, made just after Mosley had been on the programme. Ahmed's message told him it was great work on Kuenssberg.
Doctors and campaigners object
Donald Campbell of Foxglove accused the firm of lobbying to take in more of the public's sensitive personal data. Dr Tom Dolphin, chair of the BMA council, warned of scope creep that could undermine patient trust and threaten the doctor-patient relationship.
Groups for doctors and patients, the British Medical Association among them, oppose folding GP data into the platform. Their argument is that trust in the company is low. Palantir also counts the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement among its clients.
Marc Farr, who chairs the NHS Chief Data and Analytical Officer Network, said Palantir appeared to be trying to stretch its work beyond what ministers and NHS leaders have said. He noted that GP data would need legislative change.
The contract's future
The messages emerged after reports that ministers were unlikely to end the contract soon, despite two Commons committees wanting Palantir out by spring. Health secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament the review was continuing. She spoke of a long-term benefit in using the NHS to develop UK sovereign AI, which may signal a search for a British replacement when the contract reaches its next end point in 2029.
Tom Watson, a Labour peer hired by Palantir as a full-time lobbyist in September, has reportedly written to Cooper asking her to keep the contract going. Palantir said it has long argued data sharing can improve the NHS and that it is for government to decide how the software is rolled out. The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment.
Source: the Guardian