Opposition MPs urge Labour to pause public contracts with the US tech firm after attempts to examine deals blocked

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092090

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Labour [UK’s ruling party] should halt public contracts with the US tech company Palantir, opposition politicians have said, amid growing concern at the lack of government transparency over dealings with the company and Peter Mandelson.

Since 2023, Palantir has secured more than £500m in contracts with the NHS and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), while it employed Global Counsel, the lobbying firm founded by Mandelson. Emails released by the US Department of Justice show Mandelson sought help from Jeffrey Epstein to find “rich individuals” as clients.

The government has for months blocked attempts by MPs and campaigners to scrutinise Palantir’s deals. Requests for information about meetings between the company’s leadership with Keir Starmer and the former prime minister Boris Johnson were among those that have been refused.

With Palantir now expanding its AI-powered technology into British policing, the government is facing calls to freeze its involvement with the Denver-based company, which was co-founded by the Donald Trump-backing billionaire Peter Thiel, who also had a relationship with Epstein. It also provides its military technology to the Israel Defense Forces and to Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown.

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  • tetris11@feddit.ukEnglish
    12·
    2 days ago

    Im amazed the Tories are anti-Palantir, but im all here for whoever stops this contract

    • mannycalavera@feddit.ukEnglish
      101·
      2 days ago

      Let’s be honest there’s no stopping this deal. It’ll be part of the Starmer arranged US trade deal that Palantir gets to carve out deals in the UK and increase its influence. Starmer has a hard on for Trumpet.

      • Zombie@feddit.ukEnglish
        11·
        2 days ago

        Let’s hope Starmer doesn’t last the week then 🤞

        Gotta keep pushing that he purposefully appointed a known close associate of a prolific paedophile to high office.

        If he can’t get that right, how can we expect him to get more important decisions right?

        This isn’t his first scandal either. He’s lost his shine among those delusional enough to actually support him. Is it enough to topple him? I don’t know, but I hope so.

  • Da Oeuf@slrpnk.netEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    Strange times when a government contract gets cancelled because the government themselves are hopelessly corrupt, rather than it getting cancelled because the company is atrocious.