The New Dark Age

Thursday, 5 February 226 — Foxglove

You’ll have seen the news about Peter Mandelson — allegations of leaked government secrets, the payments from Jeffrey Epstein, emails advising US bankers to “threaten” the UK government, the police investigation, the resignation from the House of Lords.

But there’s a question that isn’t yet being investigated: what did Mandelson do for Palantir?

Here’s what we do know:

• On 27 February 2025, Mandelson – then UK Ambassador to the US – accompanied Keir Starmer on a visit to the Washington headquarters of controversial US Spy Tech corporation Palantir. No official record has been published: no minutes, no transcript.
• At the time, Palantir was a client of Global Counsel, the lobbying firm Mandelson founded.
• Since then, Palantir has signed a £240 million deal with the Ministry of Defence, on top of its £480 million contract to manage sensitive NHS patient data.

The investigations launched so far focus on Mandelson’s historical conduct, with Epstein. But we also need to know this as well: did the same pattern of behaviour continue while Mandelson was Ambassador – this time with Palantir?

Foxglove has been raising the alarm about Palantir for five years. Now we’re asking the Cabinet Secretary to urgently investigate whether Mandelson used his position as Ambassador to the US to unfairly benefit the secretive US tech company.

Please can you help, by signing our petition calling for a full investigation into Mandelson’s conduct regarding Palantir:

Here’s what we’re asking the government to do:

1. Fully examine whether there may have been any inappropriate sharing of information with Palantir by Peter Mandelson.
2. Disclose information about the organisation of the Prime Minister’s visit to Palantir, and Mandelson’s role in it — which has been withheld in response to FOI requests
3. Disclose information about Mandelson’s involvement in any contracts or deals between the UK Government and Palantir

The reason we need answers to these questions was summed up by one MP in Parliament today: “Given that he abused his previous position, it is entirely conceivable that he abused his most recent one.”

The public has a right to know whether or not a government figure with a history of reportedly leaking sensitive information also shared information with a powerful US tech corporation that now holds contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds with the British government.

Please add your name to push for the answers we deserve:

Thank you,

Donald

Donald Campbell Director of Advocacy Foxglove

P.S. Foxglove has been challenging Palantir’s involvement in the NHS and UK public services since 2020. We have long argued that a US corporation with strong links to Donald Trump – and which has recently been supporting Donald Trump’s ICE paramilitaries and the IDF’s operations in Gaza – has no place in UK public services.

We’ve helped expose the lack of transparency around their contracts, raised concerns about patient data privacy, and fought tooth and nail against them being awarded the contract for the NHS Federated Data Platform. This latest scandal makes scrutiny of Palantir’s access to power more urgent than ever. So please help, by signing our urgent petition: https://www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/mandelson-palantir/