francesca brock

🚨 Palantir entered the NHS for £1 during Covid. Then it became a £23.5mn contract. Then a £330mn contract. Now ministers admit it is so deeply embedded that removing it would be too disruptive. Whatever the original intention, this is textbook vendor lock-in: the customer becomes dependent upon the supplier, and dependency becomes the supplier’s greatest protection. The proposed two-year extension must therefore be treated as an emergency extraction period, not another comfortable renewal. During that time, the government must require: • complete data portability and open standards; • independent access to the system architecture; • transfer of knowledge and skills to the NHS; • a tested migration plan with firm deadlines; • government step-in rights; and • a procurement process that is not designed around Palantir’s existing product. Palantir must not be allowed to shape the problem, define the requirements and then win again because only Palantir can satisfy them. And calling the replacement “British” is meaningless unless Britain controls its intellectual property, technology and future development. A £1 foothold has become national dependency. That is not sovereignty and it is precisely why sovereignty is now necessary.