Labour peer Lord John Mann has challenged whether former deputy leader Tom Watson — now Lord Watson of Wyre Forest — should be able to return as a voting member of the House of Lords after taking a full-time senior post at US technology company Palantir.
Watson has been appointed UK senior vice-president at Palantir, having worked for the firm as a part-time adviser since 2024. He has taken a leave of absence from the Lords and surrendered his parliamentary pass while in the role.
Announcing the move, Watson described Palantir as “the most interesting company on the planet” and said its work carried major consequences for defence, policing and the NHS.
Mann answered with a wider constitutional point about peers shifting between Parliament and full-time private-sector employment.
He said:
“I fundamentally disagree with the notion that people … can join the Lords, disappear full time into the private sector and then rejoin the Lords as voting members. It’s one or the other.”
Full-time role after part-time advisory work
Watson served as Labour’s deputy leader from 2015 to 2019 and represented West Bromwich East in the Commons for 18 years before entering the Lords in 2022.
In his new post he will work with Palantir’s UK and Europe chief executive Louis Mosley, focusing on defence, policing and healthcare. The company says he will also help ensure its UK activity supports British jobs and skills and helps the country adapt to AI’s impact on work and public services.
Appointment amid scrutiny of Palantir contracts
The timing is politically sensitive. Palantir holds a seven-year NHS Federated Data Platform contract with a maximum value of around £330 million, alongside substantial Ministry of Defence and other public-sector work.
The firm has drawn criticism from some Labour MPs, unions and campaigners over its role in public services, its work with the US government and the Israeli military, and questions about data, transparency and technological sovereignty.
Palantir is also locked in a legal dispute with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime over a proposed Metropolitan Police contract.
Mann focuses on Lords accountability
Mann’s intervention is aimed less at Palantir itself than at the rules governing membership of the upper house.
Peers can take leave of absence and later return, but Mann argues that anyone who steps away from active parliamentary life for a full-time senior corporate job should not automatically regain voting rights.
His comments feed a wider debate about the revolving door between politics and business, especially where former ministers and senior figures join firms with major government contracts.
Watson frames move as public-service work
Watson has cast the appointment as continuing his long-standing interest in technology and public-service reform, saying Palantir was doing “work of real consequence” — including helping the NHS cut delays and supporting Britain and its allies on security.
Palantir’s leadership has rejected suggestions that he was hired only for political contacts, saying the role is about expanding the company’s work and proving its value in Britain.
Public office and private employment
The appointment is likely to keep the spotlight on how former politicians move into senior private-sector posts — and on what continuing obligations membership of the Lords should bring.
Mann’s case is that a seat in the Lords carries ongoing public responsibilities, and that peers should not be free to move indefinitely between full-time corporate employment and voting membership of Parliament without tougher limits.
