2026: Week 26 - Defence, Palantir and looking towards summer

There has not been a lot of positive news coming from Westminster this week.  Although the Government has stated it is “business as usual” there is an air of stagnation in Westminster; a combination of out with the old, in with the new, and the run up to summer recess.  None of this is helpful to the British public, they shouldn’t have to suffer because the Labour party cannot get its priorities straight.

One subject that was addressed was the Defence Investment Plan.  Kier Starmer raided energy, transport and housing spending to plug a defence spending deficit, he has promised an extra £15bn over the next four years.  This amount is still far below the shortfall of £28bn.  He also refused to commit to a date for spending 3% of GDP on defence.

This is simply not good enough.  Our Amed Forces need urgent investment after years of Conservative negligence. To publish a plan this late, which fails to adequately address the problems our Armed Forces face is disappointing.  As one of his final acts as Prime Minister he and the Government could have done so much better.  That will be Keir Starmer's legacy. 

It was reported this week that despite recording pre-tax profits of £25.3m in the UK last year, Palantir only paid approx. £800,000 in tax.  That equates to a tax rate of about 8%, far less than the usual corporate tax rate of 25% paid by businesses with profits over £250,000. 

At a time when we are asking for more scrutiny into the Federated Data Platform contract, it is mindboggling that Palantir are siphoning millions of pounds out of the UK. We keep hearing about how the UK treasury has no money, now we know one of the reasons for it.  When big companies like Palantir appear to fudge their tax bills to ensure they pay the minimum, it makes a mockery of the system which penalises ordinary people if they make a mistake of pennies on their tax bill.

Added to this tax bombshell is the fact that the Financial Times has uncovered evidence that the claims made by Palantir on the benefits of the Federated Data Platform are not causationally robust; a caveat has been added by NHS England to say that the performance improvements cannot be attributed to the software. 

This has raised even more concerns for me, and I have joined the calls for an independent audit on the impact of the Palantir software.  From my own investigations it looks like the UK sovereign solution which is being used in places like Greater Manchester is producing far better results with faster systems and happier medics.  Given all we have learned to date about Palantir and its systems, the NHS will need to work hard to justify any continued use of the Federated Data Platform; I don’t feel that they can.

Finally, as we approach the summer recess I will be organising a series of surgeries and pop ups around the constituency, so please keep an eye on my social pages and newsletter for dates.  Additionally, if you have an issue you would like me or my team to look in to, please do drop me an email at martin.wrigley.mp@parliament.uk.