London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks Met Police deal with Palantir
London mayor Sadiq Khan has blocked a planned £250 million data-management contract between the Metropolitan Police Service (Met Police) and the US-based data-analytics company Palantir Technologies. The decision was formally announced through the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC), and detailed in a Guardian story dated 21 May.
The contract was to be awarded to Palantir as the result of a tender process initiated last year to modernise the Met Police's existing data management infrastructure. Palantir's integrated data-analytics platform, called 'Foundry', was designed to consolidate the force's operational data, run predictive crime analysis and automate intelligence reporting. Under the tender, Palantir expected revenue of £50 million a year across the five-year contract.
Khan said in the MOPAC statement: 'There is a fundamental mismatch between Palantir's scope of work and the security and democratic-oversight standards required by London's diverse and complex social fabric.' He added: 'The company's historical relationship with ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) sends a message of distrust to London's migrant communities. The Met Police must work in a way that preserves public trust.'
Palantir Technologies is a data-analytics company founded in 2003 in Silicon Valley, counting Peter Thiel among its investors. It grew as a major business partner of the US federal government, holding long-standing contracts with ICE, the FBI, the CIA and the US Department of Defense. A £330 million data-analytics contract signed with NHS England in 2024 also drew criticism from civil-liberties organisations.
Civil-liberties organisations including Liberty, Amnesty International UK and Big Brother Watch welcomed the announcement. The Guardian carried a written statement from Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo: 'This decision is an important step in keeping London under democratic oversight. Police data analysis is a sensitive area that affects citizens' rights and freedoms; the identity of the software company managing it matters.'
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said in a statement that he respected the decision but signalled operational difficulty. 'The Met's current data infrastructure is fragmented and in need of modernisation. The rejection of this contract requires us to produce alternative solutions; that may result in short-term losses in operational efficiency.' Rowley said that alternative options under examination include BAE Systems' 'Detica' platform or AWS's police-specific data solutions.
Palantir Technologies issued a statement underlining that the decision was 'the mayor's political preference'. The company spokesperson said: 'Foundry is one of the world's most trusted data-analytics solutions. Hundreds of our public-sector and private-sector customers have validated the platform's data-security and privacy standards. It is unclear on what specific technical or operational grounds Mr Khan's decision rests.'
The political reaction came quickly. Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff said: 'The mayor is sacrificing the Met Police's operational efficiency for a political message. London needs modern technology in fighting crime; this decision will leave the police force behind.' Labour-side statements supporting Khan emphasised the civil-liberties perspective.
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and the UK GDPR data-protection authority have been examining Palantir's data-processing protocols since 2024. The ICO report's preliminary findings, published in November 2025, noted GDPR compliance questions about Foundry's data-pull methods. Khan's decision can be read as a policy assessment consistent with those ICO findings.
London's decision is part of a broader pushback against Palantir spreading across Europe. The German Federal Police was forced to cancel its contract with Palantir in 2024 by a Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) ruling following legal action by civil-liberties organisations. The French Interior Ministry suspended its 2025 negotiations with Palantir under a 'strengthening of democratic-oversight mechanisms' framing. Khan's decision is the UK reflection of that trend.