# Burnham's Palantir problem > Britain's new PM faces mounting pressure to end a controversial US data firm's £670m grip on the NHS and beyond. - Title: Burnham's Palantir problem · WIRED | Shortify - Summary: Britain's new PM faces mounting pressure to end a controversial US data firm's £670m grip on the NHS and beyond. Prime Minister Andy Burnham must decide… - Keywords: andy burnham, palantir, nhs, uk government, labour party, data contracts, us tech, varun chandra, rachael maskell, clive lewis, louis mosley, contract break clause - Source: WIRED — https://wired.com/story/the-uk-government-faces-a-reckoning-over-palantir - Author: Ben Gartside - Published: 2026-09-22T10:30:00+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: andy burnham, palantir, nhs, uk government, labour party, data contracts, us tech, varun chandra, rachael maskell, clive lewis, louis mosley, contract break clause ## Burnham's first big test New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces immediate pressure from Labour colleagues to end Palantir's £330m NHS data contract. The decision could become his first major crisis in office. ## Palantir's sprawling UK footprint The US data analytics firm holds contracts worth around £670m across British public services, including health, defence, and policing. The NHS Federated Data Platform deal is the largest at £330m. ## Manchester's Palantir resistance When Burnham was Manchester's regional mayor, he built his power base in the only English region that refused Palantir access to its data. Now he must decide the company's future. ## Labour split on the issue Burnham's government and party are fractiously divided. Senior officials quietly support Palantir, while the left-wing grassroots and influential backbench MPs push hard to end the relationship. ## Public pressure mounting fast An official petition for opt-out rights reached 10,000 signatures. A separate petition calling for Palantir's complete removal from the NHS has already hit 177,000 signatures. ## The autumn deadline Whitehall sources say any decision to break the contract must come within weeks. Hiring an alternate provider or moving the contract in-house requires time to avoid botching the changeover. > Given the need to hire an alternate provider or make a decision to move the contract in house, any decision to tear up the contract would need to be done by the Autumn. ## Maskell's NHS clinician case Labour MP Rachael Maskell, a former NHS clinician, has vocally opposed Palantir, arguing that patient trust is key to health outcomes and the US firm undermines that confidence. > If you do not have the confidence and trust of your patients, that results in people having worse health outcomes. ## Lewis warns of state capture MP Clive Lewis says Palantir followed a coordinated strategy to embed itself across the NHS, policing, and defence, leaving Britain dangerously exposed to a US-based company beyond British legal control. > This leaves us dangerously exposed to the whims of a shady spy tech company that operates under the laws of the US, not our own. ## Chandra's Trump connection Varun Chandra, who manages Westminster's Big Tech relations, has strong ties to Trump's circle. He was praised by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for his role in the 2025 US trade deal. ## Lonsdale's DOGE alignment Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale dined with Chandra in December 2024, then told a podcast that Starmer's government understands the need to cut bureaucracies, echoing DOGE-adjacent viewpoints. ## Conflicts of interest exposed The Financial Times revealed that the Department for Health's permanent secretary worked for a Palantir consortium partner while it bid on the NHS contract, forcing her to recuse herself. ## Mosley defends the firm Palantir's UK CEO Louis Mosley, grandson of British fascist Oswald Mosley, has accused opponents of putting politics before performance, claiming NATO would use Palantir in wartime. > If NATO went to war, it would go to war using Palantir. ## Campaigners shift to competence Activists discovered Palantir's software sees little actual use in the NHS. They've shifted their campaign from ethical objections to arguing the firm simply doesn't deliver value. > By focusing on competence we've found a lot more success, and by targeting the contract break. ## September's reckoning looms Parliament resumes in September. Labour's conference in Liverpool will see Burnham address members for the first time as leader, with Mosley expected at fringe events. Silence won't be an option. ## Key takeaway Prime Minister Andy Burnham must decide within weeks whether to break Palantir's NHS contract, caught between his left-wing supporters who oppose the US firm and senior officials who back it.