The Ministry of Defence asked the controversial US tech firm how to fix its procurement rules. Its answer? Fewer obstacles for companies like Palanti
Palantir led a closed-door review of how the Ministry of Defence buys software at the same time as the ministry handed the controversial US tech firm a £240m contract without competition, Democracy for Sale can reveal.
The review, presented personally to defence minister Luke Pollard by Palantir’s UK boss Louis Mosley in February, urged the MoD to cut “paperwork”, relax scrutiny of new deals and expand existing contracts without fresh competition.
Of the review’s 35 recommendations, only one was rejected outright. Internal documents obtained by Democracy for Sale – and published below this newsletter – show that the MoD subsequently reported significant progress in implementing the proposals.
Palantir’s role in shaping MoD procurement policy was not disclosed to the public and was only revealed following Freedom of Information requests by this newsletter.
Responding to our findings, Spotlight on Corruption’s Dr Sue Hawley called for “a full review by the National Audit Office as to whether the MoD is following conflict of interest rules”.
An injured child is transferred to a Yemeni hospital after a Saudi strike in Saada province on 18 October (Photo: Houthi Media Center/Alamy)
Wes Streeting once called for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia. Now he’s helping its air force bomb Yemen.
Britain is expanding its aerial refuelling of Saudi fighter jets to include bombing raids on Yemen, despite a major spike in civilians being killed in these airstrikes.
Wes Streeting initially said the UK would only provide air-to-air refuelling for Saudi jets patrolling the kingdom’s skies to ward off drone and missile attacks on airports and oil infrastructure by Yemen’s Houthi movement.
The defence secretary is now letting British fighter jets join those patrols, as well as providing refuelling for Saudi airstrikes on “Houthi military targets in Yemen”.
It comes as last month saw more civilian casualties resulting from Saudi airstrikes on Yemen than any other since 2022, according to the Yemen Data Project.
At least 66 civilians were killed and a further 90 injured, with eight children among the dead.
One of the deadliest strikes came on 22 September, when six civilians including a woman and two children were killed in the bombing of a residential home in the city of Mokha.
That same day, Britain agreed to provide air-to-air refuelling support to the Saudi air force, supplementing the deployment of air defence equipment and UK personnel already in the region.
Saudi forces struck a market in the Al-Taiziyah district of Taiz governorate five days later, killing seven civilians and injuring 40 others, including five children.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.
Evil immoral Labour cnuts. Ministers at the 2025 Labour Party conference in Liverpool (Photo: Alamy / Peter Byrne)
Labour MPs have condemned the ‘Trump-like’ decision, saying party is ‘bang out of order’
Declassified journalists have been banned from the Labour Party’s annual conference for the third year in a row.
The event in Liverpool next week is the first under new prime minister Andy Burnham and is traditionally an opportunity for reporters to question politicians.
But three Declassified journalists were denied media passes, with the party claiming that they would only be given to those “with a relevant portfolio”.
The rejection email said: “We reserve the right to reject an application if we cannot find any evidence the applicant is a working journalist or photographer with a political portfolio or working on behalf of a relevant media outlet.”
The ban comes despite all Declassified staff journalists being accredited with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), while one is also a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
The UK government has been urged to go further on sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with senior lawyers warning that current measures “fall far short” of Britain’s obligations under international law.
Foreign secretary Ed Miliband last week announced a ban on the trade of goods with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move seen as a major shift in UK-Israel relations. Canada and France announced similar actions the same day.
But 130 top lawyers and legal academics have written to prime minister Andy Burnham to say the measures do not meet the UK’s legal obligations, including those set out in a 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice.
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They said they welcomed the new measures but that the UK must now extend sanctions to more sectors of Israel’s economy, prevent public bodies investing in settlements and enforce a full arms embargo.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Genocide denying [former] UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), left, speaks with Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI) during a hearing on February 27, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“The American people do not want American military integration with a country responsible for war crimes, international law violations, and mass killings amounting to genocide.”
A coalition of over 50 rights groups on Thursday wrote to leaders in Congress to “strongly urge” them to reject not only specific proposals in each chamber’s version of the next Pentagonbudget, but also “any legislation seeking to intertwine US and Israeli defense or intelligence capabilities.”
The provision in the House-approved National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 (HR 8800) is Section 219—previously titled Section 224—and the related but slightly different proposal in the pending Senate bill (S. 4784) is Section 1217. Congressional leadership is expected to negotiate a version of the full NDAA that can pass both GOP-controlled chambers.
“The provisions would establish a new US Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative aimed at accelerating joint research, development, and integration of Israeli-origin and jointly developed defense technologies into US military systems and programs of record,” says the new letter to the chairs and ranking members of both Armed Services committees: Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-RI) and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.).
“This would expand US-Israeli military integration across some of the most sensitive domains of emerging technology, including quantum computing, AI and autonomous systems, cyber and electronic warfare, directed energy, and defense industrial base co-production, while expediting pathways from R&D into procurement,” notes the letter, first reported by Reuters.
Congressional consideration of the provision comes nearly three years into US-armed Israeli forces’ campaign in the Gaza Strip—decried as genocide by many activists, experts, and governments around the world—in response to the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel. The violence has claimed over 73,000 Palestinian lives and continues, despite a nearly year-old ceasefire.
“These facts alone should prevent even the discussion of deepening military ties, especially given the complete inability of the United States to apply existing laws, such as the Foreign Assistance Act or the Arms Export Control Act, that would require the suspension of US military aid and arms transfers to Israel,” the groups argued. “The American people do not want American military integration with a country responsible for war crimes, international law violations, and mass killings amounting to genocide.”
Pointing to polling that has shown growing opposition to US military aid to Israel “across the political spectrum,” the coalition wrote that “Section 219/1217 works to hide continuing US military support to Israel from public scrutiny and congressional oversight and involvement. Far from working to shift the US-Israel relationship in line with American public opinion, this section encourages the direct use of Israeli-manufactured technology into the US’ systems, which may render the United States dependent on Israel’s provision of such technologies, and make disentangling the relationship in the future ever more difficult.”
“At a time in which American interests are increasingly diverging from those of Israel, and American public opinion is turning increasingly against unconditional support to Israel, creating new points of influence for Israel in the U.S. defense-technology ecosystem is exceptionally dangerous,” stresses the letter.
It also sounds the alarm about Section 622 of the 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act, which was introduced in May by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and “would limit the president’s ability to restrict America’s intelligence-sharing and military collaboration with Israel by requiring the president to identify and document a specific national security concern that necessitates any changes, and expand intelligence sharing and cooperation with countries that have normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords.”
“Governments have an obligation to ensure the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms when advancing their national security interests, including countering threats to their populations’ right to privacy or other freedoms,” the letter declares. “Intertwining US and Israeli information-gathering and defense raises significant concerns given the recent evidence of Israeli espionage against people in the US, including government officials.”
Signatories include A New Policy, Amnesty International USA, Demand Progress, IfNotNow Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, Just Foreign Policy, National Lawyers Guild, National Nurses United, Peace Action, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, RootsAction, Win Without War, and dozens of other organizations.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
