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Labour peer Tom Watson has taken a senior job with controversial AI software company Palantir, and people are really not on board with the decision

Michael White. Updated September 19th, 2026

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Former deputy leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, has a new job to announce this week: he’s joining Palantir as Senior Vice President.

Watson, who left the House of Commons in 2019, was given a peerage and took up a position as the chair of UK Music.

He said:

“After six wonderful years at UK Music, I’m joining Palantir UK as Senior Vice President.

Palantir is the most interesting company on the planet, doing work of real consequence: helping Britain and its allies defend themselves, helping police protect our citizens and helping NHS staff get patients treated and home sooner.

London is comfortably its largest centre outside the US, home to more than one in six employees, the highest proportion among the world’s largest technology companies.

We have challenges. Some criticism is propaganda. Some raises legitimate questions about large technology companies and sovereign control. Both require answers.

Part of my role will be to correct false information while working with our engineers to ensure privacy, security and respect for sovereignty are at the heart of everything we do.”

Watson has taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords and has given up his parliamentary pass, it has been reported.

Palantir is one of the most controversial companies in the world right now.
Per The Guardian: “Since the pandemic, the US data analytics company has grown voraciously, using its AI-driven software to make sense of intractable datasets for customers around the world. For the NHS, it analyses patient records; for the US military, it’s focused on targets in Iran.”

The company has also come under fire for its work for ICE in the US and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Its co-founder and CEO, Alex Carp, also published a “supervillain” manifesto earlier this year, in which he bigged up the benefits of American power and implied that some cultures are inferior to others.

So it was probably never going to go unnoticed that such a prominent senior member of the ruling governing party had taken a position with such a company. And, oh boy, have people noticed.

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