Khan said the Met had only considered Palantir as a supplier, accusing the police of ‘breaching procurement rules’ [Getty/file photo]
London mayor Sadiq Khan has blocked a controversial £50 million deal between the Metropolitan police and US spy tech firm Palantir, accusing the company of breaching procurement rules.
Khan expressed “serious concerns” after the Met said it agreed to use the firm’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations, and said the police had only considered Palantir, which has long been accused of providing services to the Israeli military amid its genocidal war in Gaza, and has been the subject of numerous other controversies.
The Mayor’s Office for Policing (MOPAC) rejected the deal, citing Scotland Yard’s failure to obtain its approval for its procurement strategy.
Scotland Yard called the decision “disappointing,” according to The Guardian. The move, however, has been welcomed by members of the Green Party.
In a statement shared with The New Arab, Benali Hamdache, Green Party London Assembly member, said: “The public backlash has been impossible to ignore, and the Mayor now appears to be distancing himself from Labour’s cosy relationship with Palantir and finally listening to the anger and concern felt across London.”
Hamdache stressed that Palantir has “repeatedly shown contempt for international law through the development of surveillance and AI technology used as part of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Trump’s ICE immigration inhumane crackdown operations, and the recent disturbing manifesto published by the company.”
“Londoners do not want our public services associated with corporations that profit from war and human suffering.”
Hamdache, however, warned that the Met still has contracts with Palantir worth nearly £500,000 that haven’t been challenged, and urged similar action regarding them.
Palantir has worked with at least two other major UK entities, the National Health Service (NHS) and the Ministry of Defence.
The US firm has come under fire in recent years following its work with the Israeli military.
In 2024, the spy company signed a deal to begin supplying the Israeli army with advanced data analytics and AI in support of war-related missions, amid the genocidal war in Gaza which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Palantir’s chief executive, Alex Karp, said he is “exceedingly proud” of the firm’s involvement in what he called “operationally crucial operations in Israel”.
Following the surprise Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Palantir expressed immediate support for Israel, with a statement on X which read: “Certain kinds of evil can only be fought with force. Palantir stands with Israel”.
In November 2023, Palantir’s London office was targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters after it confirmed signing a multi-million-pound deal with the NHS for a new data platform.
Demonstrators accused Palantir of providing predictive policing to Israel to be used against Palestinians in war-hit Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and said the company was “complicit” in war crimes in both territories.
Additionally, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, named Palantir in a June 2025 report as a source of AI tools used by the Israeli army in military activities in Gaza.
The company has been criticised for its involvement in expanding government surveillance through AI and artificial and facial recognition technologies. It has worked with US President Donald Trump’s administration to enable the deportation of undocumented migrants, amid the ICE crackdown in the US.
Peter Thiel, one of Palantir’s co-founders, has expressed support for Trump, while Karp faced backlash for publishing a mini-manifesto last month, which implied that some cultures were “inferior” to others.
