Tom Watson takes senior Palantir role as ministers weigh £330m ($420m) NHS contract

Tom Watson, the former UK Labour deputy leader, has taken a formal senior role at Palantir, the US data and AI company, landing in the middle of three UK public-sector fights worth more than £600m combined.

The appointment, first reported by the Guardian on Friday, formalises an advisory relationship that has run part-time since 2024. It also coincides with Palantir defending a £330m (about $420m at recent 2026 exchange rates) NHS contract under political review, suing Mayor of London Sadiq Khan over his block on a £50m (about $64m) Metropolitan Police AI deal, and holding a separate £240m (about $305m) UK Ministry of Defence contract.

The timing is the story.

The contract stakes

Andy Burnham's government is reviewing the NHS Federated Data Platform contract that Palantir won in 2023. The Local Government Lawyer trade publication reported this month that Health Secretary Wes Streeting has reopened the deal, while Palantir has filed a separate suit against Khan after the Mayor of London refused to sign off on a Metropolitan Police data and AI procurement. The Evening Standard reported High Court filings that compelled Khan's office to hand over texts and emails in the dispute.

Palantir's UK annual turnover is around £427m (about $542m), a footprint the company is actively defending in court and in Whitehall.

The revolving door

Watson's move is the latest documented hire of a senior UK political figure by a US technology company. Between 2024 and 2026, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg moved to Meta, former prime minister Rishi Sunak took roles at Anthropic and Microsoft, former chancellor George Osborne joined OpenAI's board, and Keir Starmer's AI adviser Matt Clifford moved to Anthropic this month.

Tom Brake, chief executive of the campaign group Unlock Democracy, called the pattern a "revolving door" that is "very fruitful for big tech." His framing names the concern: senior political access for companies whose UK public-sector contracts are simultaneously under political, legal, or ministerial pressure.

Why Palantir, why now

Palantir co-founder Alex Karp framed the hire as the next chapter of Watson's "forty-year fight for better public services." The line is the company's preferred gloss. Palantir was co-founded by Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, supplies AI software to the Israeli military, and holds contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the political backdrop animating UK pushback.

A counter-argument runs in Watson's defence: he has been a part-time Palantir adviser since 2024 and attended the 2024 Labour party conference in that capacity. The formal appointment is paperwork, not a fresh engagement. The promotion timing tells a different story. A company under public contract pressure does not elevate a sitting political figure to a senior role without expecting help on the public-facing fight.

What to watch

Three dates and decisions will tell readers whether the hire shifted anything:

The Burnham government's NHS contract review, expected to conclude before the next spending review window.

The Khan / Metropolitan Police High Court case, where disclosure of mayoral texts and emails is ongoing.

The UK ministerial advisory register, which logs outside interests of serving ministers and advisers, and which Clifford's Anthropic move and Watson's Palantir promotion will both flow through in the next filing cycle.

Watson's role will not decide any of these on its own. It will, however, give Palantir a named British political voice at the precise moment the company needs one.