Email the Health Secretary James Murray – urge him to trigger the break clause in Palantir’s contract with NHS England
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Palantir is a secretive US spy tech company with strong ties to Donald Trump and shady behind-the-scenes lobbying operations linked to Peter Mandelson. It has a terrible track record around the world, and we have long argued that it’s not a trustworthy partner for our NHS.
Now, Foxglove has got hold of new data which blows a hole in claims that Palantir’s software is benefiting patients and hospitals. We set out to investigate whether or not this claim was actually backed up by hard evidence. We found that the numbers don’t stack up. Almost a third (30%) of English hospital trusts using Palantir’s Federated Data Platform (FDP) tool are actually carrying out fewer patient operations than before they started using it
Up to now, NHS England has pointed to one big cumulative figure for improvements in hospitals, carefully designed to suggest every NHS trust using Palantir’s software is improving and to claim credit for that improvement. The trust-by-trust picture, which we’ve managed to reveal this week, shows that’s simply not credible. NHS England has been forced to admit to the FT that it can’t show the platform caused any of these improvements.
Please email the Health Secretary James Murray, to raise concerns about the claims about the benefits of Palantir’s software, and to tell him that Palantir is an unfit partner for the NHS.
News
No Palantir drop in with Martin Wrigley MP – building a Westminster caucus to use our collective health data for our collective good!
Update: following this drop-in on March 23, the Financial Times published a news story over the weekend stating that government ministers are exploring triggering the break clause in Palantir's contract for the Federated Data Platform (and illustrated it with a picture of Hope from Just Treatment, Clive Lewis MP, and Foxglove's co-executive director Martha Dark!)
This is a big win for everyone who has worked on this campaign for the last three years – and demonstrates that we can get lawmakers to listen if we work together to speak loud enough. We're going to keep working with our allies to keep pushing on this.
To stay up to date on the campaign, don't forget to hit the button at the bottom of the page – and hit the 'Join Our Action' button to send a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting saying he should use the Palantir break clause now!
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Three years ago, US spy tech corporation Palantir was awarded the £330m contract for the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP). As Foxglove has said for over six years, there should be no place in the NHS for Palantir.
We are now just under a year away from the FDP contract end date: February 15, 2027. This is an important moment – we have a real chance to cut Palantir out of its biggest NHS contract.
One of the key steps in making that happen is building a network of MPs and members of the House of Lords in the UK parliament who can push the Government to change course, drop Palantir and demand a future for NHS data that is transparent, trustworthy and backed by patients and health workers.
That's why, supported by groups representing doctors, patients and pensioners, we co-hosted a drop-in session in Westminster with Martin Wrigley MP on Monday, inviting MPs, peers and their staff to hear our briefings on Palantir and share information on why we believe this matters so much.
We were joined on Monday by our amazing partners on this work: patient advocacy campaigners Just Treatment, the Doctors Association UK and the British Medical Association. The National Pensioners Convention also supported the event and helped write the briefing that we presented to MPs.
The drop-in had a great reception, with MPs and peers attending from the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru. We were encouraged by the passion and strong concerns about Palantir in the NHS expressed by parliamentarians on behalf of their constituents – with several telling us they had decided to attend after receiving many emails from Foxglove supporters (thank you to everyone who sent an email to their MP asking them to attend!).
This is just the beginning. We have a long way to go to build a caucus of lawmakers in the UK parliament large enough to help convince the government that Palantir’s contract for the FDP must end.
We’re now working with MPs to investigate the mechanics of the end of the FDP contract and how the formal process of the Government dropping Palantir from this contract would work. We’ll be writing to Foxglove supporters soon on the next steps – hit the button below to stay informed.
For now, he’s a picture of Foxglove’s Tim and Tom with Martin Wrigley, after Monday’s drop in had come to an end.
