Palantir consultancy link to Burnham's byelection team surfaces

February break clause looms over £330m NHS Palantir deal

Martha Dalton, the co-founder of strategic consultancy Lodestone, campaigned for Burnham in the Makerfield byelection that returned him to parliament and paved his way to Downing Street, The Guardian reported on 2 October 2026. Dalton worked closely with Burnham’s team on strategic communications and rebuttals during the campaign, and was among supporters who clapped the new prime minister into Number 10 in July.

A Lodestone spokesperson confirmed that Dalton took six weeks’ unpaid leave from the firm to spend time in Makerfield “supporting on strategic comms and rebuttals.” The spokesperson said she “had no contact with clients during that time and did so because she believes Andy Burnham is the best person to lead the Labour party and the country.” On her LinkedIn account, Dalton wrote that it had been “an absolute honour to work on Andy Burnham’s campaign to become Labour leader and prime minister.”

The Guardian reported the role as the latest link between Labour and Palantir, the US data and AI company that also works for the US and UK militaries and was co-founded by Trump-supporting tech billionaire Peter Thiel, valued by the newspaper at $450 billion. Lodestone worked for Palantir in 2024 and 2025 on projects that included events in parliament at which the company’s engineers demonstrated AI-powered systems for use in British public services to MPs, according to the firm. The Lodestone spokesperson said the work was “all focused on helping them to explain their technology to those who rightly hold them to account.”

After Lodestone’s Palantir engagement ended, Dalton worked on the autumn 2025 deputy leadership campaign for the current education secretary, Lucy Powell, The Guardian reported.

Lobbying links between Labour and Palantir extend beyond Lodestone. Labour peer Tom Watson took a full-time lobbying role with Palantir earlier this month, The Guardian reported, after a period as a member of Lodestone’s “strategic advisory council.” Palantir previously employed Global Counsel, Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm, before it collapsed over the former Labour trade secretary’s links to Jeffrey Epstein, The Guardian reported.

The disclosure lands as Burnham’s government is under pressure to scrap Palantir’s £330 million contract with NHS England to operate the federated data platform, a national medical data system. A break clause in the contract is due in February 2027. Health workers campaigning to scrap the deal protested at the Labour party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, and Labour members had earlier tabled a conference motion calling for the contract to be axed.

The Guardian reported that the motion alleged Palantir was “facing numerous allegations of involvement in serious breaches of human rights,” citing the firm’s development of technology for the Israeli military. Palantir’s executive vice-president for the UK and Europe, Louis Mosley, has said the company’s technology was used to locate hostages but not to identify military targets in Gaza. The Guardian reported that Mosley’s account appears to contradict an earlier statement by Palantir’s chief executive, Alex Karp, who was challenged last year by a protester alleging “Palantir kills Palestinians” in Gaza. Karp replied: “Mostly terrorists, that’s true.”

Campaigners have also raised concerns about Palantir’s work for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration. NHS England’s chief executive, Jim Mackey, has acknowledged concerns that the benefits to public health from the federated data platform may not be as significant as has been claimed, The Guardian reported.

Mosley has dismissed critics as suffering from “Palantir derangement syndrome” and said the firm’s technology has cut treatment waiting times and sped up hospital discharges. Palantir’s UK footprint extends beyond NHS England. The company holds a £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence and has been selling services to other police forces and councils. The Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is in a legal battle with Palantir after blocking the Metropolitan police from awarding it a £50 million contract to supply AI tools to assist criminal investigations.

Tom Brake, the chief executive of Unlock Democracy, a not-for-profit campaign group, said candidates should observe Cabinet Office advice on secondments before adding volunteers or secondees to their campaign teams. “This requires successful secondees to declare relevant outside interests, clarify that potential conflicts will be explored and ensure appropriate mitigations are put in place,” he said.

A Labour spokesperson said: “There are robust rules and procedures to manage any potential conflicts, whether that be in government or in campaigns, and those were followed.” A Palantir spokesperson said: “Lodestone has worked with us on a range of projects to explain how our software is used to deliver public services – for example parliamentary events that enable MPs to see demonstrations of our software and ask our engineers questions around data privacy and security.”