Palantir took its NHS pitch for GP records straight to a minister's WhatsApp

Palantir went straight to a health minister’s WhatsApp to make the case for extending its AI software into NHS GP records. The messages, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the tech equity group Foxglove and shared with the Guardian, appear to be between Palantir’s UK boss, Louis Mosley, and the former health minister Zubir Ahmed. They run from July 2025 to March 2026. GP data was expressly ruled out of the scope of Palantir’s £330m contract with NHS England to run its federated data platform (FDP).

In February, according to the logs, Palantir argued that “the logic of joining up primary and secondary [care] data is unarguable” and called its software “ideal” for the job. A briefing document listed the potential wins: faster access to GPs, more targeted management of frail patients and better preventative care, with the platform “maintain[ing] local control of data”. The company also told Ahmed: “The FDP is already delivering very strong results – but will deliver even more benefits faster with the right ministerial sponsorship.” It warned him to “get out ahead of” likely “political” opposition from doctors and critics including Green party leader Zack Polanski and Your Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.

There is history here. When Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government announced the deal three years ago, it said: “GP data will not be part of the national platform.” The BMA and patient groups have opposed folding GP records into the FDP, pointing to a lack of trust in a company that also works for the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The released documents redact the executive’s name, but Palantir did not deny it was Mosley. In one exchange, Ahmed praised his performance on BBC1’s Sunday politics show: “Great work [on] Kuenssberg btw.”

Foxglove’s advocacy director, Donald Campbell, said the WhatsApps showed Palantir “lobbying to hoover up yet more of the British public’s sensitive personal data”. He called it “appalling” that the company pressured the minister despite the 2023 pledge, adding that the correspondence “shows they knew just how sensitive this was” and that it was “telling [that] they made this argument privately, via privileged access to the government”. Tom Dolphin, chair of the BMA council, flagged “scope creep” over identifiable data in GP records that could “undermine patient trust and threaten the doctor-patient relationship”.

Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytical Officers Network, said Palantir appeared to be “bidding to stretch the scope of its work for NHS England” beyond what ministers and NHS leaders have said — and beyond what would require legislative change. “As two separate select committees have noted, public trust and transparency is essential to us being able to realise the fantastic opportunities that technology and data offer,” he said.

Palantir said it has “long argued that data sharing can improve the NHS” and that its software helps NHS organisations do so “while ensuring they maintain full local control over their data”, adding that it is for the government to decide how the software is rolled out. The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment. The lobbying surfaced days after the Financial Times reported ministers were unlikely to end Palantir’s NHS data contract imminently, defying campaigners and two Commons committees. Health secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament the review is ongoing and cited “a huge long-term benefit to using the NHS to develop UK sovereign AI”. Bloomberg reported that Labour peer Tom Watson, hired by Palantir as a full-time lobbyist in September, wrote to Cooper urging her to keep the contract going. Its next end point is 2029.