2026: Week 39 - Palantir and South West Water

As conference season continues I’ve been working hard in the constituency and keeping an eye on what Andy Burnham is saying.

Last week I was invited to speak at a meeting of Devon says no to Palantir.  It was a very well attended meeting, and it was clear that the general feeling is that Palantir has no place in our public services, whether it be the NHS federated data platform, the Police Force, or within the National Firearms Database.

It has become clear that this is being recognised by the services that have been using Palantir software, in the last few weeks it has been announced that 5 Police Forces have ceased their trials of “Project Nectar”, a real-time data sharing surveillance tool which has caused real concerns around privacy. 

In addition to these concerns, it has become clear that Palantir have a model for getting their software into British public services.  They underbid for contracts, offering a trial period, which then embeds their software.  After that they inflate the price significantly, but at renewal stage it is easier for the incumbent software to stay rather than look for new options. It is also becoming evident that the majority of the promises of Palantir don’t hold water, users of their software often complain that it fails to deliver the results that were “guaranteed”.

It is time for Andy Burnham and the Government to follow the lead of Sadiq Khan and these 5 police forces, make use of the break clause in the NHS contract and get rid of Palantir from UK public services for good.

In more local news, we had another win.

Earlier this summer I was made aware of complaints from a holiday park in Dawlish around the smell coming from a nearby wastewater treatment works.  Working with the local County Councillor we investigated and the story was picked up by BBC Spotlight.  I contacted the Chief Executive of South West Water to find out why nothing had been done to resolve this. 

Within a couple of weeks I was invited to visit the treatment works, where they explained what had been causing the issue, and that it was now resolved.  That visit was certainly a breath of fresh air compared to when I visited the holiday park!

Whilst the smell has now gone, I am still in contact with South West Water about this issue, as I am keen to learn why there seemed to be a lack of response to the holiday park about this issue. I recognise that this is a small triumph within the larger issues we see with privatised water companies; please be assured that I will keep the pressure on and will always advocate for safe, efficient and affordable water.

Finally, I was delighted to take part in an event organised by Dawlish College which provided Year 11 students with mock interviews to help prepare them for real job interviews. I am always very happy to help with events for our young people, they are the future and time invested in them is always valuable.  Thank you to the other interviewers from local businesses who gave up their time to assist with this worthwhile event.

It was a lot of fun and I was very impressed with the young people who attended,  hopefully it gave them some insights into how job interviews can be.