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The UK government has refused to reveal details of a meeting between US billionaire Peter Thiel and a former minister on the grounds that such action could damage “diplomatic relations” between Britain and the US.
Thiel, a prominent Republican donor and supporter of US Vice President JD Vance, met with the then Minister of Investment in the UK Lord Dominic Johnson in January 2024 to discuss the US and United Kingdom “Environment”.
The UK Department of Business and Trade told Financial Times that it will not issue complete notes of meetings because they include information on “Peter Thiel’s views and access to a meeting on an important issue of politics”.
“The discovery of kept information can prejudice diplomatic relations as the release would undermine the confidence and confidence that the foreign government (s) settles in the United Kingdom,” the department said this week in response to a request for freedom of information.
She added that the discovery “could potentially prejudice relations in the UK with the US.”
The government issued highly edited meetings and one agenda in response to the FT discovery request. Edits were based on exceptions from transparency laws usually called on communications between public authorities in the United Kingdom and other states, international organizations or “other state bodies”.
The government’s attitude will ask questions about the nature of Thiel’s role in relations with the United Kingdom Government.
Thiel of German origin, chairman of the Parantir Data Analytical Software Company, has developed a scary network in the US government and the Republican Party and was a leading donor of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for 2016. Thiel refused to donate to his re -election campaign, however.
A conservative libertarian, Thiel for a time employed Vance at his Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship Capital Firm and was useful in setting up in the White House.
Thiel companies have co-founded or supported, such as Parantir and A anduril-A Protection Technology Company-important government contracts have been provided on both sides of the Atlantic in areas such as health and defense.
Parantir has earned more than $ 2.7 billion in US contracts since 2009, including more than $ 1.3BN in Pentagon contracts, according to federal data, and has capitalized in a rotating door of executives that have moved between the company and high -level positions in Washington and Westminster.
In the United Kingdom, Parantir won up to half a billion pound contracts, including a contract with the National Health Service to manage patient data.
Un controlled parts of the meeting with regard to the meeting show that Johnson intended to address Thiel’s concerns about the lack of Parantir’s defense in the European market and to open the United Kingdom as a “world leadership destination for the Entrepreneurship Philanthropy . ”
Parantir was a contract was given a 75m contract with the Ministry of Defense in December 2022.
Thiel expressed pessimism about the economy of the United Kingdom, citing high taxes, low growth and “the fact that growth is driven by real estate than by innovation as technology”, according to one of the documents.
The meeting served to “develop a relationship” with Thiel, who was referred to as the founder of Thiel Capital, his investment firm, according to the information prepared for Johnson who were entitled “Bilateral with Peter Thiel”.
In justifying the parts held, the business department said exchanges between Thiel and Johnson occurred “in the immediate” before the presidential administration at a “very sensitive time” for American politics and relations in the United Kingdom. Bae
At the time of the meeting, elections in the US were eight months away.
DBT said that “he had respected his obligations under the Law on Freedom of Information and the information was held in accordance with the act”.
A Thiel spokesman did not respond to a FT request if Thiel at any time had a mandate to act as a representative of US government interests, electoral candidates or a political party.
