Palantir announce lavish Ministry of Defence party

Military tech firm Palantir are hosting a lavish party at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to celebrate their massive new contract. The firm’s founders, who have expressed far-right and anti-democratic views, seemed pleased at having penetrated the highest echelons of the British state. And their takeover has disgraced Labour politician Peter Mandelson’s fingerprints all over it.

In a bizarre twist, the head of MI5 just warned about Chinese infiltration of British universities. But not a word was uttered about how a CIA-linked, Trump-aligned military data firm has penetrated British military and health infrastructure.

The Times reported on 10 February 2026:

Senior military officers and civil servants have been invited to the evening reception in Mayfair on Wednesday to mark the company’s £241 million three-year deal to “boost military AI and innovation”.

As well as UK military contracts, Palantir has also penetrated the National Health Service (NHS). And both the Labour and the previous Conservative government have gladly invited them in.

An invitation seen by The Times said:

Join us for an evening reception as we reflect on our decade-long support of the armed forces, thank those who have been part of the journey and look towards an ever more ambitious new chapter — one that will deliver cutting-edge data and AI capabilities to UK defence, establish London as our European defence headquarters, and see investment in British innovation, jobs and national security.

Other military and arms firms like Babcock will also demonstrate their wares at the event.

Palantir have a Mandelson link

Disgraced peer Peter Mandelson was a key architect of the deal. The Guardian described the situation succinctly:

Palantir, a $300bn company that provides military technology to the Israel Defense Forces and AI-powered deportation targeting for Donald Trump’s ICE units, has UK government contracts worth more than £500m. Global Counsel, a lobbying company Mandelson co-founded and part-owns, also works for Palantir.

UK PM Keir Starmer, who is hanging on by a thread over allegations he knew about Mandelson’s links to Epstein before making him US ambassador, visited Palantir HQ in February 2025. That meeting was allegedly brokered by Mandelson:

But there is no formal record of what was said. The Foreign Office says it holds no emails confirming the arrangements.

Defence secretary John Healey has defended the £240m deal. Palantir has up to £500m in UK contracts overall:

Peter Mandelson has no influence on any MoD contracts. The Palantir decision was mine.

Adding:

did not appear in the prime minister’s register of visits and came to light later in subsequent disclosures.

The Times reported:

Palantir was and still is a client of Global Counsel, the lobbying firm that Mandelson co-founded. His shares are in the process of being divested and Mandelson would not have financially benefitted from the deal, it is understood.

Thiel and Karp

Alex Karp and Peter Thiel are the most prominent figures at Palantir. Both Karp and Thiel are linked to Donald Trump. Their politics are openly far-right. And now they have access to great swathes of the British state, including defence and health. In a bizarre twist, Palantir’s UK chief is Louis Mosley – grandson of British fascist leader Oswald Mosley.

As Action on Armed Violence‘s Iain Overton warned on April 2025:

But make no mistake: Palantir is no neutral software vendor. It is the digital vanguard of a globalised military-industrial complex that sees citizens not as people to be protected, but as data points to be mapped, managed — and monetised. It’s own tag line (according to a series of posters recently put up in University campuses) is “We build to dominate.”

And let’s be clear, this is no mere tech firm. Palantir is another example of the imperial boomerang, born out of the War on Terror and the CIA:

Palantir grew rich off the back of the post-9/11 security state, with seed funding from the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel. It developed its tools in tandem with US intelligence, border enforcement, and drone warfare programmes.

Overton added:

It helped track “terrorists” abroad, surveil migrants at home, and model crime in cities riddled by systemic inequality.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has railed against Palantir’s role in the NHS:

And advocacy group, the Citizens, is currently lobbying for a full debate on Palantir’s UK contracts:

Despite the company’s deep embedding in government systems, there has been no comprehensive scrutiny of costs, data governance, ethical risks or national sovereignty.

They also warned:

Internationally, Palantir has been linked to controversial immigration enforcement in the US, criticised for its role in military operations in Gaza, and rejected by authorities in Switzerland over data and dependency concerns.

The British government, shaky as it is, seems absolutely determined to keep Palantir onboard. The situation is frankly bizarre. For example, the head of MI5 has just issued a warning that Chinese intelligence is trying to infiltrate British universities. Ken McCallum also announced a £3m round of measures to secure UK educational institutions. Yet Palantir, a foreign firm with deep links to the intelligence agencies of the current crackpot US regime, has taken over parts of the UK’s critical defence infrastructure and services – and been paid handsomely for the pleasure.

Featured image via the Canary