Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party now working as Palantir’s UK senior vice president, has accused Labour MP Clive Lewis of making incorrect claims about the company, in a letter that Lewis discussed at the Labour conference. The Register understands the letter challenges statements Lewis made about Palantir’s UK contracts in healthcare, policing and defence, and is based on material Watson compiled without using any of Palantir’s own software.
A letter built by hand
Lewis told the conference that the level of detail in the dossier felt like a message saying they were watching him. Watson’s reply, reported by The Nerve, cited statements made in Parliament, written questions, interviews, opinion pieces and social media, rather than internal analysis.
Watson also argued that Palantir is a significant UK investor, and that its software has helped convict a gang stealing from cash machines, support victims of domestic abuse and improve the availability of Royal Navy vessels. Watson, who advised Palantir from 2024 before joining full-time in September, now works alongside Louis Mosley, the company’s executive vice president for the UK and Europe.
The figures Watson left out
The sharpest criticism concerns what the letter omitted. In rebutting what he called misinformation, Watson said the NHS Federated Data Platform was live at 142 trusts and that 137 were already reporting benefits. That broad claim echoes figures promoted by NHS England, which the Office for Statistics Regulation subsequently said needed to be communicated more carefully.
After complaints about how NHS England used the data, the regulator noted that the health service added a caveat to its published figures on 6 June, stating that conclusions about cause and effect could not be drawn because other variables had not been controlled for. NHS England also updated its methodology and agreed to identify before-and-after comparisons more clearly in public communications.
Why it matters
The dispute is a small episode with a large backdrop: a former Labour deputy leader now defending a supplier’s commercial interests at a Labour conference, while the underlying evidence for that supplier’s benefits in the NHS rests on statistics the official watchdog has already qualified. Both parties are making claims that outrun their evidence, in opposite directions, and the regulator’s involvement is now on the record.
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Watson’s arrival also lands against the backdrop of a reported £330m NHS deal nearing a breaking point, and a separate £21m direct award to a UK energy operator. Healthcare campaigners have already turned up the heat on Palantir at the Labour conference, so the political pressure on the relationship is building from more than one direction.
What happens next
Lewis has the opportunity to respond publicly, and his conference remarks suggest he intends to. The more consequential thread is whether the OSR’s conditions are met: if NHS England continues to promote platform benefit figures without the agreed caveats, the regulator has said it wants to be kept informed of progress. Watch for further correspondence between the two men, and for any movement on the wider NHS contract as the supply relationship comes under sustained political scrutiny.
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