Democracy for Sale

A lot has been happening this week. But I want to start with some good news: Democracy for Sale has been shortlisted for specialist newsletter of the year at the Future of the Media Awards 2026. ūü•≥ It‚Äôs a real recognition of our work. Thanks so much to all of you who support us! If you are a free subscriber, and can afford to upgrade, please become a paid supporter, for just ¬£50 a year. Award shortlistings aside, this week we‚Äôve been focused on one thing - Palantir.

MPs, healthcare experts and NHS insiders are calling on Andy Burnham’s new government to end the NHS’s controversial £330m contract with Palantir, after our investigation revealed remarkably low levels of usage of the tech firm’s software in the health service.

Palantir has been dubbed the world’s scariest company. Trump’s favourite tech firm provides surveillance software to ICE, the Pentagon and the Israeli ministry of defence. Peter Thiel and Alex Karp talk excitedly of AI drone-driven warfare. No wonder Andy Burnham is already facing calls to end Palantir’s controversial £330m contract to build the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDP). But what exactly does Palantir do for the British state? How did it become so influential in Westminster?

I’ve been exposing dark money in British politics for almost a decade. Often people, especially those in power, haven’t wanted to listen. The problem is overblown. It’s a borderline conspiracy. Now, suddenly, everyone has woken up. Nigel Farage this week triggered a by-election amid mounting questions over a £5m gift from Thai-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne. But it hasn’t stopped the stories coming. Harborne’s money to Farage was reported to the National Crime Agency, the Guardianrevealed.

Farage - desperate to escape accountability It’s 1997. Conservative MP Neil Hamilton is running for re-election in Tatton, Cheshire. He’s sitting on a 22,000 vote majority in a rock solid Tory seat. But Hamilton isn’t any old incumbent. He’s been embroiled in a massive ‘cash for questions’ scandal - compelling evidence shows he accepted money from Mohamed Al-Fayed to ask questions in Parliament. Step forward Martin Bell.

Truss at CPAC Conference at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Washington DC, February 2024 In a couple of weeks, the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) rolls into London. The speakers list is a who’s who of the transatlantic radical right: there’s Liz Truss, CPAC Great Britain head honcho, a host of MAGA influencers, and the headline act, Reform’s Nigel Farage. CPAC Great Britain’s motto promises to “Save Britain. Save the West”.

A lobbying firm run by Andy Burnham’s incoming chief of staff organised a meeting between Labour minister Douglas Alexander and several of its clients – despite declaring no lobbying activity, Democracy for Sale can reveal. James Purnell was chief executive of Flint Global until earlier this week and is now poised to join Burnham if he enters Number 10.

At Democracy for Sale we write a lot about lobbying: Israeli arms firms bankrolling parliamentary groups. Ex-diplomats spinning for sanctioned foreign governments. We even got a former Tory MP to lobby for our fake Chinese client for just £5,000. Given all that, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to read that Andy Burnham is appointing James Purnell as his chief of staff. But I was. On one level, the appointment makes sense.

Well that was decisive. Andy Burnham won Thursday’s by-election by the proverbial landslide. Inevitably the last 24 hours have been filled with instant analysis of what it all means. But there’s one person I really wanted to hear from: John McTernan. McTernan was director of political operations under Tony Blair, among many other roles in the party, and is one of the sharpest commentators around on Labour.

Nigel Farage doesn’t seem to want to answer questions about his money. The Reform leader has scaled back press events amid scrutiny over an undisclosed £5million gift from Thai-based crypto tycoon Christopher Harborne. But while Farage has ducked questions about his finances, Democracy for Sale has found that the Reform leader’s personal service company is breaking UK companies law.