When Andy Burnham sat in his office in Manchester as the regional mayor, building an unrivaled power base on Britain’s left that ultimately catapulted him into the prime minister’s office, he did so in the only region of England that refused Palantir access to its data.
\n\nNow, as Burnham enters his first parliamentary session as British leader, Palantir could prove to be his first major test in office, as sources in Westminster tell WIRED the prime minister is under significant pressure from his new colleagues to break the company’s contentious contract with the National Health Service. The dispute could become the first major crisis of Burnham’s premiership, with those sources saying pressure is mounting on him to decide the future of Palantir’s growing role across the British state in the coming weeks.
\n\nPalantir currently holds contracts worth around £670m in the public sector, including major deals in health, defence, and policing. The largest—a £330m contract to manage healthcare data on the NHS Federated Data Platform—is the one Palantir opponents have opted to focus on. Reports circulated during Labour’s leadership election that Burnham would block Palantir, but they were swiftly cut down in follow-up reporting. Campaigners are now pushing for Burnham…
Original source: https://www.wired.com/