Zack Polanski‘s Green activists are using their growing influence with local authorities to put pressure on the NHS to stop using Palantir software – despite evidence that waiting lists have been shortened and accelerated cancer diagnoses.
The US tech giant, which has won a total of £600 million in public sector contracts, has been targeted by left-wing activists over its work with Donald Trump‘s immigration authorities and the Israeli army.
The Prime Minister should exercise a break clause in the company’s seven-year, £330m NHS contract Andy Burnham by the end of this year.
The Greens have joined forces with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and left-wing groups such as Amnesty International to put pressure on local NHS Trusts, with Sheffield, Rotherham and East Hertfordshire councils all submitting almost identical motions against Palantir in recent months.
Sheffield is run by a formal Labour-Green joint government, while East Hertfordshire District Council is run by a Green and Liberal government. Democrat coalition.
The Rotherham motion, tabled in July, urged the council to call on Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust to pause the expansion of Palantir technology.
It was tabled by independent councilor Taiba Yasseen and seconded by Green councilor Mick Bower, with support from Labour.
The Greens v Coventry City Council also pushed through a motion on the council’s own contract with Palantir, which is used to help social workers in the area.
Zak Polanski pictured leaving the local election campaign launch at One Friendly Place on April 9
Mr Polanski wrote to Palantir’s chief executive in January demanding the company ‘pack its bags and leave the NHS’.
A Palantir spokesperson said: “This activity threatens to deny patients access to technology that can improve the care they receive.
‘Since our software was rolled out, NHS trusts using it have recorded 110,000 additional operations, a 15 per cent reduction in discharge delays for long-term hospital patients and an average improvement of 6.8 per cent on the NHS’s 28-day faster diagnosis standard.’
Palantir’s British CEO Louis Mosley has previously said the company should be “judged on whether we provide products for patients in this country.”
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