LABOUR should have ended the £300 million NHS contract with Palantir, campaigners said today after it emerged officials warned the US tech firm’s reputation would hinder its rollout.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting was privately briefed last June that “public perception” of Palantir — which works for the Israeli military and US Ice operations — was affecting delivery of the AI data platform and would “make it harder to go further,” documents released to campaign group Foxglove revealed.

Fewer than half of health authorities had started using the technology by last summer amid opposition from the public and doctors.

The fallout over Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein also affected Palantir’s image, as it employed the former ambassador’s lobbying company, Global Counsel.

Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr Tony O’Sullivan said: “This initial NHS contract with Palantir was made by Matt Hancock and the Tories in 2020, but Labour should have ended it.

“Well over £1 billion of public money is now in Palantir’s hands… despite being steeped in the blood of migrants hounded by Ice in the US and the people of Gaza and the West Bank.”

He urged Palantir to be “out of the NHS” and patients’ data when the contract is re-examined in 2027.

Lewis Backon of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said the company’s technology has been used as “an essential part of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and its wider regime of military occupation and apartheid.”

“It should be nowhere near our NHS, and should not receive a single penny of public money,” he said.

“Keir Starmer must take responsibility and cancel all government contracts with Palantir immediately.”

A spokesperson for Palantir said its software is “helping to deliver better public services” and a government spokesperson said the platform is “already delivering for the NHS.”