Jeremy Corbyn has raised concerns about an NHS contract awarded to a US data company that also works with the IDF during a Your Party event on the “Mandelson-Starmer-Epstein nexus".
Speaking on Wednesday to his party’s candidate for Yorkshire Ismail Uddin, Corbyn branded Lord Mandelson, the former ambassador to the US, as "manipulatively malevolent".
Mandelson founded a UK lobbying firm, Global Counsel, and retained shares in the business until allegations of misconduct in public office in relation to his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein emerged earlier this month.
Among Global Counsel’s clients is Palantir, which recently won a contract to process data for the NHS.
However, the company remains controversial for its separate work for the IDF, with critics claiming its AI services are employed in targeting software used by the Israeli military.
During the livestreamed event, Corbyn said: "Palantir is obviously a very big and very powerful company. They [are] at the cutting edge of high tech - the use of high tech in military and civilian purposes, the use of data in pharmaceutical research and the use of data personal people's data in military activities as well.
"Palantir is deeply involved in the IDF and what it is doing in Gaza, where they have an incredible level of knowledge of every person... and that has been used to guide the bombardment and the killing of people in Gaza.
"[Palantir is] involved in military activities in Gaza and the West Bank are now getting hold of our NHS information," he stressed, insisting that the UK needs to "get them out".
"He [Mandelson] runs a company (Global Counsel) that gets the prime minister to meet [at] the HQ of Palantir and then Palantir then ends up directly involved in our NHS, I’m beyond suspicious.”
Mandelson is no longer involved in Global Counsel, having agreed to sell his shares following his resignation from government and the House of Lords.
"We did our own inquiry into Gaza," Corbyn continued, referring to the unofficial “Gaza Tribunal” held by his Peace and Justice Project NGO last year, which concluded that Israel was committing genocide in the Strip.
"I think we as a party need to work with people that our doing independent inquiries. We have got to blow open the cosy relationship between big business, lobbying, the media, some members of parliament, and some government ministers. Democracy requires it."
"I want to see an end to the occupation of Palestine and the way in which Israel is not just occupying Gaza but fundamentally taking over the whole of the West Bank and the far right... wanting to expel all Palestinians,” he went on.
"Britain is complicit in the genocide [through] the supply of weapons.
"The performance on the international stage has been abysmal and appalling."
Corbyn called for more protest in conjunction with the Palestinian Solidarity campaign (PSC), adding: "[We need to recognise that the fightback against the loss of civil liberties by Palestine Action... is turning debate around," he said.
The JC contacted Jeremy Corbyn, Palantir and Global Counsel for comment.
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