LABOUR have been urged to “give us all the facts” about Peter Mandelson and Keir Starmer’s meeting with a US tech firm linked to the disgraced former ambassador.
Questions continue to dog the Prime Minister about his unrecorded meeting with Palantir during his trip to Washington in February last year.
As the UK Government faced questions earlier this week about further delays to the publication of the Mandelson files, relating to his ill-fated posting to Washington, and information being withheld from Parliament, Labour backbencher Kim Johnson demanded answers on the Palantir meeting.
She told the Commons: “I am very concerned that it appears that No 10 is still continuing to cover up Mandelson’s dodgy dealings by redacting and withholding certain information.
“What was Mandelson’s role in the Prime Minister’s meeting with Palantir, why did the former Health Secretary grant Palantir unlimited access to identifiable NHS patient data, and what assurances can the minister give us that any information relating to Mandelson’s involvement with Palantir will be exposed to full public transparency and scrutiny?”
Darren Jones, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said suggestions of a cover up were “a conspiracy” as he pledged that “all documents will be published”.
Speaking to The National after the exchange in the Commons, Johnson said: “Calling this a ‘conspiracy theory’ is honestly laughable when Mandelson and his cronies have left the party mired in scandal. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
“If the Government has nothing to hide, it should simply give us all the facts – then people wouldn’t be forced to speculate.”
The spyware company, founded by Donald Trump-backer Peter Thiel, has been awarded major contracts by the UK Government, worth a total of £670 million, and was a client of Mandelson’s now-defunct Global Counsel lobbying firm.
Palantir’s software is also used by the brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the States, which has killed US citizens in its quest to hunt down immigrants, and the company also works with the Israeli military.
Johnson’s call came as scrutiny over Global Counsel’s links with the Labour government increased.
No official records have been kept of any meetings between the firm, which collapsed after Mandelson’s fall from grace over his friendship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and top UK civil servants, according to the investigative news site openDemocracy.
The site reported that the top official in the Department for Business and Trade and a senior Treasury civil servant met with the lobbying company several times last year but that no minutes were kept.
Starmer failed to declare his meeting with Palantir and No 10 had previously described the event as a “visit”, meaning it did not need to be recorded officially.
Elsewhere, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has pulled the brakes on a £50m deal the Metropolitan Police had struck with the company citing a “clear and serious breach”.
Asked if Starmer discussed Palantir accessing identifiable NHS patient data during the meeting, a company spokesperson told The National: "No."
They added: "The event in question was a typical government visit to a business, involving a media photo-call. It provided an opportunity for the Prime Minister to meet with representatives of a company that is working with vital UK institutions, at an office located close to the White House, where he had just met with the US president.”
The UK Government was approached for comment.
