The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has agreed to hand over his text messages and emails for inspection as part of a high-stakes courtroom clash with US tech heavyweight Palantir. The concession, revealed at a High Court preliminary hearing, marks a dramatic twist in a dispute centred on a blocked £50 million contract with the Metropolitan Police.
Khan’s office had originally argued that searching the mayor’s personal communications was neither necessary nor proportionate. According to Joseph Barrett KC, representing the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac), the decision to scrap the Palantir deal was taken by the deputy mayor for policing and crime, not Khan himself. Yet Palantir pressed on, and Mopac eventually relented “on a pragmatic basis.”
The move means Khan joins a roster of more than a dozen officials from Mopac and the Greater London Authority who will be classed as “custodians” in the case. Their digital footprint, spanning texts, WhatsApp messages, and Microsoft Teams chats, will be combed for anything relevant to the row, then disclosed to Palantir’s legal team.
Inside the Blocked Deal
At the heart of the controversy is a proposed two-year partnership that would have handed Palantir the keys to an AI-powered system designed to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations. The California-based firm, known for its work with the Israeli military and the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations, has become one of the most talked-about names in defence tech.
But Mopac pulled the plug in May, citing a “clear and serious breach” of procurement rules. Officials claimed Scotland Yard had effectively treated Palantir as the only serious contender from the outset, sidelining rival bidders in the process.
Palantir hit back hard. Within weeks, the company accused Khan of “putting politics above public safety” and filed suit against the mayor’s office in June. The legal filing paints a picture of a mayor who, in Palantir’s view, let ethical objections to the firm’s controversial client list override the operational needs of Britain’s biggest police force.
A Key Witness Joins the Custodian List
The list of those whose communications will now be scrutinised includes one particularly prominent name: Sarah Brown. Brown previously served as Khan’s director of communications at City Hall before being appointed to the same role at Downing Street under Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July.
Her inclusion is no accident. Court documents from Palantir suggest that press briefings criticising the company’s values and ethics, briefings that influenced the public narrative around the contract veto, were initiated by Brown herself. Mopac has confirmed her role in shaping the messaging. Any trace of those conversations could now surface in legal disclosure.
What’s Still Up for Grabs
Several loose ends remain as the case heads towards a full trial next year. The precise window of time covered by the communication searches has yet to be fixed, and Mopac is reportedly pushing for access to Palantir’s own internal files relating to the procurement process. The company, for its part, is said to be resisting those demands.
The battle is shaping up to be one of the most significant legal confrontations between a UK public body and a major Silicon Valley defence contractor, with implications that stretch far beyond the corridors of City Hall.
Why it Matters
This case is about far more than a single contract. It tests how much leeway elected officials have to block deals on ethical grounds, and whether procurement rules can be enforced without exposing the inner workings of mayoral decision-making to hostile legal scrutiny. For the tech sector, the outcome could shape how AI suppliers compete for sensitive public sector work in the UK, particularly when their other clients attract political controversy. And for Londoners, it raises a pressing question: when a mayor blocks a deal, how much of his own digital life should be open for inspection in the resulting courtroom drama?
