Residents from Kingston and the nearby area gathered in front of Kingston Hospital earlier today (Thursday, 1 October) to protest the NHS' contract with Palantir.

Led by Richmond & Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the action was part of the People vs. Palantir: Global Week of Action, an international campaign to end all public contracts and partnerships with the spy tech company.

The demonstration took place outside the main entrance of Kingston Hospital on Galsworthy Road between 2 and 4pm on Thursday.

Despite being small, the protesters peacefully situated themselves on both sides of the road with placards reading "NO PALANTIR IN THE NHS".

Throughout the protest, those involved stuck flyers to bonnets of nearby cars and occasionally shouted chants against the US company.

Joining the members of Richmond & Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign were residents as well as local Lib Dem councillor Brian Austen and Kingston Independent Residents Group (KIRG) leader, Cllr James Giles.

Speaking to Nub News during the protest, Cllr Giles said: "This is an international day of action. People up and down the country are taking a stand against Palantir's involvement in the NHS.

"People overseas are taking a stand against Palantir's involvement in public services. It's been really heartening here today to see so many people come out in the middle of a workday to say that the NHS needs to do better.

"They need to stop handing over our data to private companies for very nefarious aims and objectives.

"We need to keep our NHS public. We need to keep public services in public ownership. And from here today, many activists will be travelling to Palantir's headquarters in Soho, to send them a message that they need to get out of our way.

"Basically, 44,000 people now, as of today, have objected formally to the NHS about having their data used by Palantir. And that's a number that will continue to grow. And we will continue to be here. We will continue to put on the pressure until our government, ultimately, this is a national decision, stops awarding contracts to Palantir, and, indeed, other private companies.

He continued: "And the other thing that's really reassuring being here today is that so often these things can be divided along party lines, but actually, here in Kingston, you've got both opposition councillors and administration councillors, from liberal Democrats, here together with a joint message that Palantir needs to get out of our NHS."

Cllr Austen added: "The NHS should not be investing in foreign countries, foreign companies like Palantir. I mean, why aren't we doing these things ourselves?

"We've got very good data handlers in this country, and we've got massive unemployment.

"Let's get our young people to work and devise a system that would actually protect our people more on the NHS case base."

Throughout the protest, many cars driving past honked their horns in appreciation.

Speaking about this, Mary Homes, an original member of Richmond & Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: "We've had wonderful support today, and many of the people we've spoken to today know about Palantir, and those who don't, now understand why they're bad. It's really heartwarming."

Several NHS workers at the hospital explained that they did not know that our national health service is working with Palantir.

Another member, Roshan, who said she has been a supporter of Palestine for "longer than most people have been alive, for 54 years" told Nub News she is "very proud" of the campaign.

She said: "I'm here today because I think Palantir is representative of everything that is going wrong with this country and particularly our beloved NHS, which has to be one of the most effective health care systems.

"It's not perfect by any means, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that governments have not given it the support and the financial support that they should have been doing over the years.

"But this company, which has made inroads into the NHS, is absolutely the kind of company we do not need in the NHS.

"First of all, we don't need further privatisation in the NHS. We particularly don't need privatisation with a company that is known worldwide to have very dirty hands."

She explained that Palantir is funded by the CIA and that its founders are supporters of US President Donald Trump.

Roshan added: "It does that job for the Israeli so-called 'defence force'. It gathers a whole lot of information.

"It gives it to the Israeli military, which then uses it to conduct a genocide, which is still ongoing. It does the same for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States, and we've seen how vicious people in ICE can be with immigrants.

And again, it is Palantir that supplies them with the information. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"So that just goes to show you what kind of a company this is. Do we really want to put our beloved NHS, and I make no excuse for saying beloved NHS, in partnership with Palantir?

"Our data, patient data, which can be misused, is in their dirty hands.

"I will never trust a company like that. And do any of us trust the Trump government? I mean, both of Palantir's co-founders are avid supporters of Donald Trump. So Donald Trump can sign an executive order tomorrow to say that we want all of the NHS's data."

Speaking aboutThursday's protest and Palantir, Richmond & Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign's secretary, Eva Nazim, said: "We put this demo together today because we want to highlight what Palantir is and that it's a company that has access to our data within the NHS without our having any right to opt out of this.

"They are a US spy tech company that's involved in Israeli war crimes in Gaza, finding targets, and it's an evil company.

"So we're here because there is an opportunity for the government to do the right thing and discontinue the contract with Palantir, and we want to put the brakes on them, break the clause.

"That's why we're here today to say we don't want Palantir in the NHS, having access to our data and monetising it, and it's an evil company.

"It shouldn't be anywhere near our wonderful NHS. It doesn't fit with our values."

Following the local action, the group joined a big rally outside Palantir HQ in Soho Square, London at 6pm.

In November 2023, the company was awarded a £330million contract to develop a Federated Data Platform (FDP) to store NHS England patient medical data.

This contract is widely opposed by health workers and patients, according to the Richmond & Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

In February 2027, the government will choose whether to extend or break the contract.

Richmond & Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign says it is "demanding the government end the contract, and commit to not awarding any future contracts to tech companies enabling Israel's crimes against Palestinians".

Richmond & Kingston Palestine Solidarity Campaign member Fiona said that the group were joining the rally to help persuade the government to break the contract.

She added: "There is this campaign to persuade the government not to break the contract with Palantir and the NHS because there is a break clause that they have to apply by January.

"So, this is a campaign across the country, and I think internationally. But there are demonstrations like this all over the country.

"I've spoken to a couple of people who work in the NHS, and they have no idea that Palantir is very central to their management.

"But we've had lots of support today with drivers honking their horns. There was also a bus driver who said, 'I support you totally'.

"So we're hoping that this will have an impact."

Fiona continued: "The NHS has already said that it's not for them to break the contract. The government has to do it. And, of course, now we have Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband making rather contradictory statements: on the one hand, coming out quite strongly against Israel, and they want to introduce these sanctions on imports from the illegal settlements.

"On the other hand, they're both saying, 'Oh, but we support Israel's right to defend itself'.

"So, we're waiting to see what happens, but we're hopeful there is a change - Keir Starmer would not be prevaricating like this. So we're hoping we can push Andy Burnham.

We want to provide Kingston with more and more clickbait-free local news. To do that, we need a loyal newsletter following. Help us survive and sign up for our free weekly newsletter by clicking the link HERE.