Palantir and London's policing office drop legal fight over blocked £50m deal

Both sides withdraw their claims

Palantir and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) withdrew their claims against each other on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, ending a High Court fight that had been due to go to trial in January. Neither side made a payment to the other, and each will cover its own legal costs. The mayor's office still stands by its decision to stop the Metropolitan Police signing a two-year software contract with the US firm, so the deal remains blocked for now. Sadiq Khan had agreed that his text messages and emails would be searched as part of the trial, a step that will no longer happen. The settlement was set out in a joint statement issued the same day.

Why MOPAC blocked the deal

MOPAC halted the contract in May 2026. The deal was worth £50m over two years and would have given the Met AI tools to process intelligence in criminal investigations, through a system called unified operational analytics. Kaya Comer-Schwartz, the deputy mayor for policing and crime, wrote to the Met commissioner that the force had seriously considered only one supplier and had not submitted its procurement strategy for approval, which she called a 'clear and serious breach' of the rules. Palantir filed its High Court claim in June, arguing that MOPAC had imposed an 'unlawful veto' by weighing the company's values and ethics. MOPAC denied that it had done so.

1. 2026-05MOPAC blocks the two-year £50m contract for AI intelligence tools
2. 2026-06Palantir files a High Court claim against MOPAC
3. 2026-07MOPAC lawyers accuse the Met and Palantir of coordinating to fix the procurement outcome
4. Oct 14, 2026Both sides withdraw their claims in a joint statement

Budget pressure cited by the Met

In June, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force's procurement had been lawful and commercially sound, and he warned that services and staff could be cut. He told the London Policing Board that the Palantir system would have let the Met cut 500 jobs to answer a budget shortfall of £100m this year and £125m next year. The commissioner tied those potential cuts directly to the outcome of the procurement, which the mayor's office has now agreed to re-run. Those are the two shortfall figures he gave the board.

This year

100

Next year

125

This year

100 £m

Next year

125 £m

Joint statement and the re-run

In the joint statement, MOPAC said its decision was not based on Palantir's values or ethics, or on any wider reporting about the company. It acknowledged that a statement from the mayor's spokesman, given to the media before the decision, could have wrongly suggested that the firm's values had counted. The mayor's office said its statutory role was to examine spending proposals and ensure value for money for Londoners. MOPAC is working with the Met to re-run the procurement with all due speed, and Palantir will be eligible to bid. The statement put it plainly:

MOPAC does not have, and has never had, any policy of not contracting with Palantir.

The Independent reports that Palantir remains in the bidding process, with a decision expected in the spring.

Reactions and wider context

Khan defended the company's contribution to London, saying:

London is the technology capital of Europe, and I am proud that leading software firms choose the city as their home.

Louis Mosley, who heads Palantir in the UK and Europe, accused Khan of politicising procurement and of 'putting politics above public safety'. The Guardian notes that Palantir also works for the Israeli military and for the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, while Khan had said Londoners wanted public money spent only with companies that share the city's values. Tom Watson, a former deputy leader of the Labour party, was hired as a full-time lobbyist by Palantir a month before the settlement. Palantir also faces a campaign by parts of the public and MPs to have its £330m NHS medical data contract axed and replaced.