Palantir drops City Hall legal fight over Met deal

Palantir has dropped its High Court challenge against the mayor of London's policing office over a blocked £50m deal with the Metropolitan Police.

However, the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has not reversed its decision to stop the Met agreeing a two-year software contract with the US technology firm.

Instead, in a joint statement on Wednesday, it said the decision was "not based on Palantir's values or ethics" and that the company was "free and welcomed" to bid when the contract is re-run.

The mayor's office said neither side had made any payment to the other and both would pay their own legal costs.

London mayor Lord Sadiq Khan said: "Palantir makes a significant contribution to jobs and investment in the capital, employing a large number of Londoners whose services have been procured legally by organisations across the UK and beyond."

In Wednesday's joint statement, MOPAC acknowledged that a statement from the mayor's spokesman provided to the media "could have incorrectly created the impression" that the firm's values had been a factor.

"MOPAC is happy to correct any contrary impression," it said, adding that it "does not have, and has never had, any policy of not contracting with Palantir".

It said its decision had been based on its legal duty to examine spending proposals and ensure value for money, and that it was working with the Met to re-run the contract "with all due expediency".

The case had been due to go to trial in January, and Lord Khan had agreed to have his text messages and emails searched as part of it.

MOPAC blocked the deal for AI tools to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations in May.

In a letter to the commissioner, deputy mayor for policing and crime Kaya Comer-Schwartz said the Met had only seriously considered one supplier, and that its failure to seek MOPAC's approval for its procurement strategy was a "clear and serious breach" of the rules.

Palantir filed a lawsuit in June, arguing that MOPAC had imposed an "unlawful veto" by wrongly taking its "values and ethics" into account, which MOPAC denied.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said in June that the force's process had been "legally and commercially compliant" and warned that services and staff might have to be cut.

He told the London Policing Board the Palantir system would have allowed the Met to cut 500 jobs in response to a budget shortfall of £100m this year and £125m next year.

The force's 2026-27 budget included plans to cut 1,150 jobs, with the work of 500 of those to be done by AI tools to speed up intelligence reports and the analysis of mobile phones.

Sir Mark also said that in March 2026 the Met had fewer officers per 100,000 people than at any point since 1981.

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