Palantir has been courting the Home Office unit charged with tackling small boat crossings as it seeks to deepen its ties with the British state.
The US company has held talks with the senior Whitehall leader tasked with co-ordinating Labour’s crackdown on illegal immigration and smuggling gangs.
Palantir , which is chaired by technology billionaire Peter Thiel, has faced opposition in Britain over its deals with the NHS and the Ministry of Defence, as well as pushback in the US over its work with Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agents.
Executives from Palantir met Martin Hewitt, then the UK’s Border Security Commander, last summer for a “preliminary discussion to understand the scope” of its services for border control.
Border Security Command was launched by Labour after its election in 2024, with Mr Hewitt appointed by Yvette Cooper, the then Home Secretary.
The unit is tasked with managing the response to people smugglers to “smash the gangs”, rather than front-line immigration enforcement. It has been backed by more than £280m in funding.
Last year, the Government said the division would have the mandate to invest in “new technology and cutting-edge surveillance equipment to disrupt and destroy criminal gangs”.
Meeting was a ‘limited scoping exercise’
Palantir also met Simon Bond, the civil servant in charge of the Home Office’s digital immigration control programme, along with other tech giants, government transparency records show.
It is understood the talks with Border Security Command have yet to move forward. A source said the meeting was a “limited scoping exercise” and no procurement negotiations were taking place. Border security officials also met Quantexa, a UK AI start-up.
Mr Hewitt was last month replaced by Duncan Capps , a former British Army officer. The Border Security Command unit was set up to work across Border Force, the National Crime Agency and Immigration Enforcement, as well as the Security Service, to bring down illegal crossings.
Previously, Palantir worked with the Cabinet Office on Brexit customs checks and had an agreement with the Ministry of Housing to help rehome Ukrainian refugees. The $330bn (£263bn) US business does not currently hold any public contracts working with the Home Office on immigration enforcement.
However, it has undertaken widespread work in the US supplying technology to Immigration Customs and Enforcement, the agency that has spearheaded the White House’s controversial crackdown on illegal immigration.
In the UK, campaigners including Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader, have demanded that Palantir be stripped of a £330m deal providing data services to the NHS and have played on fears that the company’s technology could be misused for deportations.
Palantir has insisted the use of NHS data in this way would be unlawful. It has said its technology is cutting waiting lists and has led to 110,000 more operations.
The business has been repeatedly targeted by Left-wing activists over its ties to Mr Thiel, a Republican billionaire, and its work with the Israeli military.
Palantir secured a £260m deal with the Ministry of Defence this year to supply its technology, which is used for sorting and analysing vast amounts of data.
It has also been working with UK police forces. In February, it secured a trial contract with the Metropolitan Police. Its software was used to root out officers accused of corruption or conduct violations.
However, its negotiations with the Met have prompted criticism from Sir Sadiq Khan , who raised concerns over whether the company’s outlook was “contrary to London’s values”.
Labour has been scrambling to bring down dangerous migrant crossings in small boats, which are organised by gangs of people smugglers. More than 6,000 people have crossed the English Channel this way so far this year and last year 41,000 people made the perilous journey.
A Palantir spokesman said: “Palantir is proud of how our software is helping to improve public service delivery in the UK – whether that’s delivering more NHS operations, helping police identify more women whose partners have a history of domestic violence, or keeping Royal Navy ships at sea for longer.
“We are always happy to discuss how that software might be used for other government priorities. In this case, there have been no further discussions since the meeting last summer.”
