Palantir and Mayor's policing office settle £50m Met contract row

US technology firm Palantir and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) announced a joint settlement on 14 October 2026, ending their High Court dispute over a £50 million Metropolitan Police AI contract that MOPAC blocked in May. In an agreed statement, both parties withdrew their allegations and said MOPAC's decision 'was not based on Palantir's values or ethics or any wider reporting about the company' but on procurement law, governance, affordability and value-for-money tests. Palantir had claimed MOPAC introduced an 'unlawful veto' after Mayor Sadiq Khan publicly questioned whether the firm's values aligned with London's. The initial contract remains refused and a new competitive procurement is now under way, with MOPAC confirming it has no policy against contracting with Palantir in future. The settlement, viewed by some London politics commentators as a climbdown by Khan, drew heavy coverage into the 18 October weekend. It is likely to shape how the Mayor's policing office approaches high-value technology procurement for the Met for the rest of this mayoral term.