L

Lord Fox (LD)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 11 February 2026

Debate

Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts

Contribution

My Lords, leaving aside the nature of the ownership of Palantir and the questionable involvement of Peter Mandelson, we have another key concern. On the Government’s own admission, this is a strategic contract. It seems that only Palantir is in a position to deliver this, otherwise it would have been a contested commissioning. The Minister in the Commons has said that the data will remain under sovereign protection. However, the core competence of developing the ways of using that data for AI will rest with Palantir and will be embedded, as the Minister has said, with its proprietary systems and software. Does the Minister share my concern that this is outsourcing what should be a sovereign capability—not just owning the data but knowing how to use it? Does he recognise that we will be reliant for crucial AI expertise embedded across the defence industry on a single US supplier?

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