Tom Watson warns former Labour colleagues against 'mob rule' in procurement

Watson made a legal argument, and he made it to the people he used to sit beside. "One of the things I'd say to my former colleagues is: do you want to let the rule of law lead procurement practice, or do you want to let mob rule to lead procurement practices? Because you get yourself in a lot of trouble if you go down on the latter one," he told the BBC podcast Political Thinking with Nick Robinson ^[4]. He was a defence minister and minister for digital engagement in Gordon Brown's government ^[7]. He has advised Palantir part-time since 2024 ^[8].

The warning has a court case behind it. Palantir is fighting Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, who blocked a £50m deal for Metropolitan police investigators to use the company's AI ^[5]. Counting the £330m NHS software deal that Labour MPs and unions want Andy Burnham to abandon, £380m of named contract value is now in political dispute ^[1][14]. The reporting does not give either contract's term.

Watson's account of who opposes the company is narrow. "I think we are very targeted by the people that are targeting Israeli companies. We're not an Israeli company, but because of our work in Israel, we found ourselves in the middle of the row of the Gaza protests," he said ^[6]. The sceptic in his old party starts from somewhere else. "Tom is not the first politician to be blinded by tech hype. The key issue is we can't be so dependent on one company. It's a US company, subject to US legislation regarding access to our data," Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP who chairs the science, innovation and technology committee, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme ^[13].

Her objection is the harder one for Palantir to answer. It would stand even if the company had never worked for the Israeli military or for ICE, so an account built on Gaza campaigners does not meet it ^[3]. It is an objection about concentration and jurisdiction. In my view a minister who wants to reduce reliance on Palantir is on firmer ground there. Limits on dependence and conditions on data access can be written into the next contract before it is signed, and they are harder to call mob rule than a cancellation that follows a protest.

The decision has a short horizon and a long one. This quarter it is the NHS deal, and the record does not yet show whether Burnham will move on it. Over the decade it is Onwurah's question of how much state data work sits with one supplier subject to another country's law ^[13]. A cancellation made now under protest pressure would settle the first question and leave the second open, with a court fight likely if the Met case is a guide ^[5].

I think the hire shows Palantir treats its standing with the governing party as a commercial risk in its own right. The company said Watson's job would be, in part, to "deepen the social and economic value its work creates through better British public services, jobs and skills" ^[12].