Artificial intelligence (AI) profit-makers look set to get their hands on NHS data. And lobbying Labour Friends of Israel vice chair Peter Kyle probably played a role.
Backdoor privatisation of the NHS is nothing new. Thatcherism paved the way, 2010s austerity made things worse, and then the Covid-19 pandemic helped to push things further. Now, with the economy predictably struggling under Keir Starmer’s Tory continuity government, his neoliberal crack team have suggested that handing NHS and other data to AI companies could help to turn things around. In reality, however, it looks very much like corporate money and influence have triumphed again.
Opening the NHS up even further
Media outlets are currently asking questions like “Has Rachel Reeves crashed the economy?” and “Why has Labour Failed So Badly on the Economy?” The answer, says economist Richard Murphy, is that Reeves has made a conscious ideological choice to avoid the steps necessary to improve the economy. He is also doubtful that artificial intelligence is able to make a big difference without a fundamental shift in the government’s positions.
Nonetheless, the Times reported on 12 January that:
the health service is set to make its archives of scans, biodata and anonymised patients records available for the first time to train the latest AI models.
Ministers think their plans will “attract billions of pounds of investment from American tech firms”. And the awful Peter Kyle, now secretary of state for Science, Innovation and Technology, compared AI development to “the nuclear race” of the 1940s and 50s. A lovely, hopeful image to place into our minds.
Importantly, however, WeOwnIt founder Cat Hobbs asked:
When did the British public give our permission or mandate to use OUR health data to make a profit for private companies?
As the Guardian wrote, meanwhile, Starmer “put concerns over privacy, disinformation and discrimination to one side” when announcing the AI push. “I don’t think that we should have a defensive stance here”, he said. He would say that though, as a corporate crony who happily welcomed a dodgy donation of “£4m from [a] tax haven-based hedge fund with shares in oil and arms”, which also “stood to profit” from Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The fund had invested, for example, in billionaire Israel and Trump fanboy Peter Thiel’s spy tech company Palantir. You know, the pro-Israel company with “deep ties to British and American security agencies”, access to our NHS data, and experience helping to smear progressives, back right-wing causes, and mistreat vulnerable people.
Kate Brimsted from law firm Shoosmiths warned about “the substantial data privacy, confidentiality and security challenges that accompany this initiative”. The Guardian has already reported on serious flaws with previous government uses of AI. But officials claim they’ll “take into account national security and ethical concerns”, just like they’ve ‘taken into account’ concerns about the genocide in Gaza while still participating in and legitimising it.
Lobbying Peter Kyle
AI companies’ mission to profit from NHS and other data, however, needs government insiders. And while massive corporate donations from dodgy hedge funds helps, constant lobbying is key. And Peter Kyle is no stranger to lobbyists’ hospitality.
In 2024, openDemocracy reported on how:
Hakluyt is a globally operating corporate strategy firm that advises some of the largest companies in the world across all sectors. It spun out of MI6 and despite attempts to shake off its reputation for remaining relatively ‘close’ to the intelligence services in the years since, it is still widely regarded as a retirement home for spies.
It added that Hakluyt:
forked out several thousand pounds to ferry… Kyle around San Francisco earlier this year. We know that Kyle sat down with senior figures at all the big silicon valley firms while he was there: Amazon, Meta, Google, Oracle, Open AI et al.
On top of that, the firm “arranged a secretive dinner for Kyle to meet with more influential people”.
openDemocracy also called Kyle’s role “one of the most lobbyable briefs in government”. And in the run-up to the 2024 election (in which he lost thousands of votes partly over his support for Israel amid its genocide), he “benefited from external support in his office… with the consultancy Public Digital providing a member of staff four days per week to support on policy” and him benefiting “one day per week from the expertise of a member of staff from Faculty AI”. The latter firm:
co-authored a substantial policy report titled ‘Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State’. The report was published with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change…
Corporate control via AI
The lobbying apparently worked. Because Kyle and his colleagues are now opening the door for AI profit-making in the NHS and beyond.
Starmer’s Labour is a disgrace. And as many on the left predicted, its corporate cronyism and the lack of a mass left-wing alternative has helped to make Reform UK the second most popular party in Britain, and a real contender for power in the next election.
The need for the left to come together to present a strong front against the far right and its Tory-Labour enablers is more urgent than ever.
Featured image via the Canary
