Revealed: Palantir lobbied minister to stretch AI tools’ reach to NHS GP records
The US data analytics firm Palantir used a direct WhatsApp channel to urge a health minister to extend its AI technology into GP records, despite the data being expressly ruled out of scope of its existing NHS contract.
Palantir, the US data analytics firm co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, used a direct WhatsApp channel to lobby the former health minister Zubir Ahmed to extend its AI technology into GP records.
The messages, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the tech equity campaign group Foxglove and shared with the Guardian, span several months from July 2025 to March 2026.
In the messages, Palantir’s UK boss Louis Mosley argued that “the logic of joining up primary and secondary [care] data is unarguable” and said its software was “ideal” for the job.
The push came in February this year despite GP data being expressly ruled out of scope of Palantir’s existing £330m contract with NHS England to run its federated data platform (FDP).
The company’s existing FDP contract, which it says has helped cut surgery waiting times and discharge delays, is for a federated platform that does not include GP data.
Lobbying messages and ministerial praise
The released WhatsApp logs show Palantir urging Ahmed to “get out ahead of” likely “political” opposition from doctors and vocal critics of the company, such as the Green party leader Zack Polanski and Your Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
The firm also told Ahmed: “The FDP is already delivering very strong results – but will deliver even more benefits faster with the right ministerial sponsorship.”
In one message, the minister praised a performance on a BBC1 Sunday politics programme, just after Mosley had appeared.
“Great work [on] Kuenssberg btw,” Ahmed said.
The Palantir executive advised the minister that “the politics [of using GP data] is not straightforward – the previous government ruled GP data out of scope when announcing the FDP. So, as this moves forward, it will be one to get ahead of and explain, otherwise the opponents described above will make hay with it.”
Concerns over trust and scope creep
Groups representing doctors and patients, including the British Medical Association, have opposed the integration of GP data into Palantir’s FDP, arguing there is a lack of trust in the company.
The company also works for the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has raised further concerns among critics.
When Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government announced the deal with Palantir three years ago, it said: “GP data will not be part of the national platform.”
Tom Dolphin, chair of the BMA council, raised concerns about “scope creep” with Palantir potentially accessing identifiable personal data in the GP record that could “undermine patient trust and threaten the doctor-patient relationship.”
“Patients must be able to seek care without worrying which operators might have access to duplicates of their personal information,” he said.
Government review and future outlook
The lobbying emerges after it was reported last week that ministers were unlikely to end Palantir’s NHS data management contract imminently, defying campaigners and two House of Commons committees that wanted the company to be forced out as soon as spring.
The Financial Times reporting, which suggested the Palantir contract will be extended, came amid concerns that removing the firm’s AI technology would be disruptive without an alternative lined up.
The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, last week told parliament the review was ongoing, but said there was “a huge long-term benefit to using the NHS to develop UK sovereign AI.”
Bloomberg also reported that Tom Watson, a Labour peer hired as a full-time lobbyist by Palantir in September, recently wrote to Cooper urging her to keep the contract going.
Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytical Officers Network, said: “Palantir appears to be bidding to stretch the scope of its work for NHS England in a way that goes beyond statements from ministers and NHS leaders that GP data was not in the scope of the FDP contract and would require legislative change.”
The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment on the specific messages.
Palantir said: “We’ve long argued that data sharing can improve the NHS, for patients and taxpayers, and that our software helps different NHS organisations to do that, while ensuring they maintain full local control over their data. We’ve also always been clear that it is for the government to decide how they roll the software out. These exchanges reflect both of those points”.
The next step is unclear, but the government may seek a UK replacement for Palantir when the contract reaches its next end point in 2029.
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