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London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks £50m Met police deal with Palantir
TL;DR
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has blocked a £50m deal between the Met police and Palantir, citing a serious breach of procurement rules. The decision prevents the controversial tech company from securing its largest contract in British policing.
Key points
- Sadiq Khan blocked a £50m deal with Palantir.
- The decision cited a breach of procurement rules.
- The deal would have been Palantir's largest in British policing.
- Concerns were raised about value for money and supplier engagement.
- Palantir can still bid for future contracts.
Mentioned in this story
Sadiq KhanMet policePalantir
A £50m Met police deal with the controversial US tech company Palantir has been blocked by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, with City Hall citing a “clear and serious breach” of procurement rules.
Scotland Yard had been in talks, revealed by the Guardian last month, to use Palantir’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations. But Khan intervened on Thursday to stop the flagship contract, which would have been Palantir’s largest yet in British policing.
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac), which must approve contracts of this size, withheld approval, saying Scotland Yard had seriously engaged with only one potential supplier, Palantir. Khan’s office also said the Met risked becoming locked into Palantir’s technology and that the proposed deal had not “ensured or demonstrated value for money”.
His spokesperson said Londoners only wanted to see public money being paid to companies that “share the values of our city”.
There does not appear to be any block on Palantir bidding for a similar future contract and Mopac said it wanted to work with the Met on a “new procurement at pace”.
There is rising public and political concern about Palantir’s widening reach in UK public services, where it has more than £600m in contracts with the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, the Financial Conduct Authority and several smaller police forces. The US company was co-founded by the Trump-supporting tech billionaire Peter Thiel and also serves the Israeli military and Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown operations.
It worked with Peter Mandelson’s lobbying company, Global Counsel, until its collapse, and Mandelson took the prime minister, Keir Starmer, on a trip to Palantir’s Washington DC showroom. Last month its chief executive, Alex Karp, published a mini-manifesto extolling the benefits of US power and implying some cultures were inferior to others, in what one MP called “the ramblings of a supervillain”.
A company’s ethics cannot be taken into account during public procurement processes but the mayor’s spokesperson said in a statement that Khan would raise the question of whether this should be changed with the government.
City Hall’s reasons for blocking the two-year contract to use Palantir’s AI to automate intelligence analysis included Scotland Yard’s failure to obtain Mopac’s approval for its procurement strategy, which meant it was not possible to determine if the market had been tested to ensure value for money.
Q&A
Why did Sadiq Khan block the £50m deal with Palantir?
Sadiq Khan blocked the deal due to a serious breach of procurement rules and concerns about value for money.
What technology was the Met police planning to use from Palantir?
The Met police intended to use Palantir's AI technology to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations.
What are the implications of the blocked deal for Palantir?
The blocked deal prevents Palantir from securing its largest contract in British policing but does not stop the company from bidding for future contracts.
What did the Mayor’s Office say about the procurement process?
The Mayor’s Office criticized the Met for engaging with only one supplier and expressed the need for a new procurement process to ensure better value.
