Palantir lobbied a UK health minister to add GP data to NHS platform

Doctors’ groups cite patient trust and scope creep concerns over identifiable data

Palantir lobbied a former UK health minister to bring GP patient records into the NHS data platform it already runs, according to WhatsApp messages obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the tech equity campaign group Foxglove and shared with The Guardian. The messages appear to be between Palantir’s UK head Louis Mosley and Zubir Ahmed, who served as health minister, and span July 2025 to March 2026.

Palantir, the US company co-founded by Peter Thiel, operates the £330m federated data platform for NHS England. GP data is expressly out of scope of the existing contract. Palantir says the platform has helped cut surgery waiting times and discharge delays, and its lobbying of Ahmed rested on the argument that “the logic of joining up primary and secondary [care] data is unarguable” and that its software was “ideal” for the job.

The push came in February, even as GP data remained outside the agreement. Palantir told Ahmed the benefits of applying its Foundry software to GP records could include “faster access to GPs … more effective and targeted management of frail patients, and more effective preventative care”, and said its platform would “maintain local control of data”.

The messages also show Palantir advising the minister on how to manage resistance. The firm urged Ahmed to “get out ahead of” likely “political” opposition from doctors and vocal critics of Palantir, naming Polanski and Your Party. It told him: “The FDP is already delivering very strong results – but will deliver even more benefits faster with the right ministerial sponsorship.” One message read: “the politics [of using GP data] is not straightforward – the previous government ruled GP data out of scope when announcing the FDP. So, as this moves forward, it will be one to get ahead of and explain, otherwise the opponents described above will make hay with it.”

The Department of Health and Social Care released the documents with the Palantir executive’s name redacted, and Palantir did not deny that the executive was Mosley. Ahmed, praising the executive’s performance on the BBC One Sunday politics programme, wrote: “Great work [on] Kuenssberg btw,”

Groups representing doctors and patients, including the British Medical Association, have opposed integrating GP data into Palantir’s platform, arguing there is a lack of trust in the company, which also works for the Israeli military and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Dr Tom Dolphin, the BMA council chair, raised concerns about “scope creep” and said Palantir potentially accessing identifiable personal data in GP records could “undermine patient trust and threaten the doctor-patient relationship”. He added: “Patients must be able to seek care without worrying which operators might have access to duplicates of their personal information.”

Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytical Officer Network, said “Palantir appears to be bidding to stretch the scope of its work for NHS England in a way that goes beyond statements from ministers and NHS leaders that GP data was not in the scope of the FDP contract and would require legislative change”. He added: “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.”

Donald Campbell, Foxglove’s director of advocacy, said the WhatsApps showed Palantir “lobbying to hoover up yet more of the British public’s sensitive personal data”. “It is appalling to see Palantir pressuring the minister to bring GP records into its platform, despite pledges from the government in 2023 that this would not happen,” Campbell said. The correspondence “shows they knew just how sensitive this was” and was “telling [that] they made this argument privately, via privileged access to the government”, he added.

The disclosure comes as ministers weigh the contract’s future. The Financial Times reported last week that ministers were unlikely to end Palantir’s NHS data management contract imminently, despite campaigners and two House of Commons committees calling for the company to be forced out as soon as spring, and the FT suggested the contract would be extended. That reporting came amid concerns that removing the firm’s AI technology would be disruptive without an alternative lined up.

Health secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament last week that the review was ongoing and that there was “a huge long-term benefit to using the NHS to develop UK sovereign AI”. Her comments come as the government may seek a UK replacement for Palantir when the contract reaches its next end point in 2029. Bloomberg reported that Tom Watson, a Labour peer hired as a full-time lobbyist by Palantir in September, recently wrote to Cooper urging her to keep the contract, saying: “I want to ensure that Palantir UK rises to meet the government’s new social-value tests and helps build Britain’s sovereign technological capability.”

Palantir said: “We’ve long argued that data sharing can improve the NHS, for patients and taxpayers, and that our software helps different NHS organisations to do that, while ensuring they maintain full local control over their data. We’ve also always been clear that it is for the government to decide how they roll the software out. These exchanges reflect both of those points.” The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment.

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 messages show the company pressing for that limit to be reconsidered while the review of the contract is under way.