Camden Council's Palantir Shares Jump 1,200% as Its Leader Runs for Starmer's Old Seat

Camden Council's shareholding in Palantir Technologies grew from £276,444 in October 2023 to £3.65 million by December 2025, an increase of more than 1,200 percent, according to Freedom of Information disclosures obtained by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and shared with Declassified UK.

A second set of disclosures narrows the timeline further. Between September 2024 and December 2025, the value of Camden's Palantir holding rose from £683,045.88 to £3.65 million, the steepest climb in the period covered.

The rise tracks Palantir's expanding footprint in Israel. The company entered a strategic partnership with Israel's Ministry of Defence in January 2024. In London, Mayor Sadiq Khan blocked the Metropolitan Police from awarding Palantir a £50 million contract this past May.

Camden's broader position in companies identified by PSC as complicit in violations of Palestinian rights has grown alongside it. The council's holdings in more than 60 such companies were worth £104 million in June 2024, according to the first FOI disclosure. By the end of 2025, that figure had climbed to £133.5 million, an increase of roughly 29 percent. PSC's analysis attributes the growth to both rising share prices and new purchases.

The portfolio, held through Camden's £2.4 billion Local Government Pension Fund, also includes more than £10 million in defence contractors supplying the Israeli military: £1.69 million in Boeing, £1.12 million in Lockheed Martin, and £46,837 in Elbit Systems, the Israeli drone manufacturer.

A motion that never reached the floor

The growth has continued despite an organized campaign for divestment. In late 2024, then-Green councillor Lorna Russell tried to bring a motion calling on the pension fund to divest from the listed companies. She could not find a second, so the motion never reached the council chamber. Camden's rules allow a blocked motion to be forced to debate if campaigners collect 4,000 signatures.

In January 2025, campaigners from Camden Friends of Palestine delivered such a petition, and hundreds of protestors lined the streets outside the town hall as councillors debated divestment. Russell was reportedly the only councillor to argue for it. Labour, which holds an outright majority on the council, did not move to divest.

"It is beyond shameful that, in the face of Israel's genocide in Gaza and atrocities across Palestine, Camden council is continuing to funnel many millions of pounds of workers' deferred wages into companies making these crimes possible," said Lewis Backon, PSC's campaigns officer.

The disclosures land as Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali runs as Labour's candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, the seat Keir Starmer represented until his elevation to prime minister and a constituency that overlaps heavily with Camden. Abdi-Wali has led the council through both the petition debate and the period of steepest growth in its Palantir stake.

Camden's pension fund does not buy shares directly. Like most local government schemes, it invests through pooled funds managed by firms such as Baillie Gifford and Legal & General, which make the underlying stock selections. PSC has campaigned since 2025 for the UK government to require screening tools across local pension schemes to exclude companies tied to Israel's occupation.