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The mayor blocked the deal because he was not satisfied it was value for money for Londoners
The US technology company Palantir plans to take legal action against the mayor of London’s decision to block a contract between them and the Metropolitan Police.
The Met had proposed a £25.3m deal with Palantir UK for 2026-27, to use the firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology to speed up criminal investigations and root out corrupt officers.
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) said it was not satisfied the Met had adequately ensured or demonstrated value for money.
The proposed legal action regards another part of MOPAC’s assessment, where it cited concerns around the firm’s values and ethics. Legally this cannot influence a deal refusal.
A spokesperson for the mayor of London said the decision was not made on the basis of values or political considerations.
“In this case, the Met did not present its procurement strategy for approval as required and the process followed by the Met did not adequately demonstrate value for money for Londoners for a proposed contract at this value,” they said.
“Given the tight budgetary constraints the police and all public services are operating under, it’s even more important that robust processes are followed when awarding large contracts such as this.”
A Palantir spokesperson said: “We don’t take the decision to pursue legal avenues lightly.
“However, we have clear reason to believe that the decision may have been taken because, in the words of the mayor’s spokesperson, of a subjective assessment that our company does not share their ‘values’.
“If that is the case, not only will the decision have been bad for Londoners, leading to the hundreds fewer officers on the street – it will have been unlawful too.
“We have repeatedly requested further information from MOPAC to clarify whether this is the case and, to date, none has been forthcoming.”
Critics of Palantir have pointed out the company’s funding links to the CIA, leading to allegations around surveillance, its contracts with the Israeli Defence Force, and its co-founder Peter Thiel being a major donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
At Thursday’s meeting of the London Policing Board, Sir Sadiq Khan said discussions around the Palantir contract would be “restricted” due to the threat of legal action.
“I would like to make this point though, the deputy mayor and I both support the Met using the very latest technology to drive efficiencies and improve performance of the police,” he said.
“However we must always ensure the correct processes are followed and that we get value for money for taxpayers in London.
“There is a history of public sector IT contracts going tens of millions of pounds over budget, this is waste that could have been used for frontline services. The Met does not and should not stand above scrutiny.
“Rather than being alarmist, we must continue to work together calmly and diligently on the funding reforms and efficiencies that are needed to avoid potential tough choices like we’ve done over recent years.”
In a report presented to the board, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force now faced “stark” choices which meant it would “be able to achieve less for London’s communities”.
He estimated that between 500-700 front line jobs could be at risk.
He said the force faces a £125m funding gap in the next financial year and needed to make savings through “cutting-edge technology,” including using AI to speed up tasks such as searching through reports or phone data.
In the report, Sir Mark referred to the “tough choices” already made by the Met over the last two years, which have included losing 3,300 officers and staff.
Palantir said an earlier pilot project with the Met “helped Scotland Yard tackle serious corruption and criminality within its force”.
The AI was used to check for potential breaches and misconduct, covering corruption, abuse of authority for sexual purposes, fraud, sexual assault, misconduct in public office and misuse of police systems.
The pilot resulted in the arrest of two officers and gross misconduct investigations of at least 30.
Earlier this month, the government’s cross-party Science, Innovation and Technology Committee said Palantir should not play such a significant role in the UK public sector, stressing that it was not the only company capable of providing the ‘middleware’ required by public bodies.
It said reliance on a small number of US-based providers “represented a clear vulnerability, with ambitions to digitally transform public services potentially at the mercy of foreign actors”.
