At the Cabinet, but not in the Cabinet: Chris Philp (second from right) is allowed to attend meetings at No10, but Cabinet status – and salary – still eludes him
EXCLUSIVE: In the week he got promoted in Thick Lizzy’s government, Croydon South’s Conservative MP was judged to have broken strict House of Commons rules by using his parliamentary office to campaign on behalf of Jason Perry. By STEVEN DOWNES
It’s fair to say Chris Philp has had a mixed few days.
Lost amid all the national gnashing and a-wailing and the elaborate displays of virtue signalling by politicians of all hues following the death of the unelected monarch, there has also been some fall-out from the government reshuffle conducted by Thick Lizzy Truss, the new Prime Minister.
But then it emerged that while Philp would be attending Cabinet meetings, he would not be a full member of the Cabinet. Off the post!
It’s a classic example of “close but no cigar”, because as well as missing out on the cherished status, Philp loses out on 36 grand a year in salary. As Chief Secretary, he’ll get an extra £31,680 per year on top of his MP’s salary of £84,144 plus generous allowances and exes. As a full member of the Cabinet, that top-up figure could have been £67,505.
Truss’s top team: a certain amount of barrel-scraping has been going on in Downing Street
The salary question may be of little real concern to wealthy Philp, who made himself a millionaire by flogging booze and fags out the back of a van to service stations, after running a company that subsequently went bust (stiffing the Exchequer for thousands in unpaid tax).
On the up-side, with his important new government office, Philp was told that he would be made a member of the Privy Council. Not bad for a sarf London grammar school boy. He’d get to meet the Queen and…
It is thought that it was the Privy Council meeting that got binned on Wednesday night as the Queen’s health rapidly deteriorated was where Philp’s elevation to being a “right honourable” was to have been confirmed.
Without the formal blessing of the monarch, Philp’s PC status remains in a kind of limbo. His name has not yet been added to the official list of 700-plus Privy Counsellors.
Nevertheless, Philp still managed to attend Saturday morning’s Proclamation of Accession at St James’s Palace, the first time that ceremony had been held in 70 years, and where he got to sign the formal proclamation.
In doing so, Philp was very probably the signatory who had most recently been found guilty of breaking the House of Commons Code of Conduct.
Last week the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards had published her ruling that Philp had broken the strict rules that prevent MPs using their Westminster facilities for political campaigning.
Philp had been subject of two separate complaints in March this year, when he was carpet-bombing the residents of Croydon South with emails calling on them to vote for Jason Perry and “kick out” the Labour administration at the Town Hall at the local elections.
The Commissioner had a welter of evidence to prove the case, all with Philp’s gurning face leering out from the top of his emails and with his signature on the bottom as “Member of Parliament for Croydon South”. And all used his parliamentary email address, chris.philp.mp@parliament.uk.
Political propaganda: MP Philp used his parliamentary email to send out at least 10 Tory campaign emails like this
The Commissioner even had Philp’s admission that he had sent the emails – at least 10 of them, to a mailing list of 2,500 (it must be said, a somewhat suprisingly low number).
The emails from soon-to-be Treasury minister Philp even included one inviting residents to a Croydon Tories fund-raising dinner at a Purley curry house – one that had been owned by local councillor Badsha Quadir, the generous donor to the local Conservatives who liquidated various companies when the taxman came calling for hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid VAT and taxes.
But despite the overwhelming weight of evidence and multiple offences, the Parliamentary Commissioner for No Standards decided, in familiar style (see the feeble sanctions imposed in the past when “Lord” Barwell was caught red-handed in similar egregious breaches of the House of Commons Code of Conduct), to let Philp off with nothing more than a very stern ticking off for being a very naughty boy.
Philp had ‘fessed up to his crimes, saying that as he had been using some form of internet mailing service, he didn’t realise that by signing up to it using his parliamentary email address that it would be sending the emails out as if from that very same e-address. Seriously.
Philp, let’s not forget, is now regarded as one of the finest talents in Thick Lizzy’s Conservative parliamentary party, one worthy of a seat at the Cabinet table.
Feeble: Parliamentary Commissioner Kathryn Stone
After extensive to-ing and fro-ing between Kathryn Stone, the Commissioner, and Philp, as well as seeking advice from parliament’s IT director, in her judgement report, which is published in full here, she wrote, “Having considered the information available to me, I found that Mr Philp had breached paragraph 16 of the Code of Conduct.
“Given the number of emails sent, the size of the distribution list, the short timeframe, and the political content of the email circulars I gave careful consideration to the most appropriate means of concluding this matter. However, I decided that this matter could be resolved using the rectification procedure available to me under Standing Order No150.
“When making my decision, I considered the explanations provided by Mr Philp and the [IT] Managing Director and found that, Mr Philp had incorrectly believed that, because the email circular was sent from the online marketing platform and not the parliamentary server, the email circulars did not constitute a breach of the Rules.
“I also took into account Mr Philp’s acknowledgment and apology for the breach as well as the action he had taken to amend the email address to remedy the breach and to prevent reoccurrence, and the nominal costs incurred as a result of Mr Philp’s actions.”
So that’s all right then.
And of course, there’s no way of rewinding and erasing any impact that Philp’s dodgy emails might have had on the Croydon Mayoral election, where Perry won by fewer than 600 votes.
Philp must be hoping that this week gets a bit better. From his new office in the Treasury, he only has to deal with the fuel price crisis and the country’s head-long dive into the latest Tory-inspired recession.
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So history repeats itself for Croydon Conservatives and their use of electronic mail with regard to campaigning material and transgressing rules. We are well into the second decade of the electronic means to sell political messaging. Philp’s transgression does not appear to be egregious as the more hopelessly inept rule breaking undertaken by Gavin “Twinky” Barwell, but still demonstrates a lack of competence and expertise, that you would have thought have been met by a more knowledgeable user of electronic communication.
Well they ever learn? This judgement does not enforce the rules. There is no incentive for them to change and if they think this will make the difference in winning a marginal seat, they will listen to the complaints at leisure with another little word in the ear that doesn’t amount to anything as they reside for another five years in their tax payer subsidised sinecure.
You can be sure they’ve been advised by “Super” Mario, who claims expertise in these matters. As you can tell from his creepy website, strapline, preposterously, “Mario Creatura Former Conservative Parliamentary Candidate”.
“Philp must be hoping this week gets better…”. But sadly, no.
As friend of IC Peter Underwood tweeted yesterday, our local MP has a few questions to answer with respect to his financial interests and possible conflicts of interest in his new role as chief secretary to the Treasury, what with his stake in a property finance group. Under former PM’s ‘responsibility-lite’ Ministerial Rules, it’s for Mr Philp to decide if there is a conflict of interest between his ministerial job and his financial interests given that it is likely to have to oversee spending policy in respect of Housing and Planning policy.
What will he do? There was a time in the not too distant past when the answer was obvious and straightforward – either sell their stakes or place them in blind trusts on appointment. We know what he’ll do. Nothing.
IC’s interested reader can check out Mr Philp’s entry in the Register of Members’ Interests, where they’ll find a mix of holdings including Pluto Partners LLP, Pluto Silverstone Co Invest LLP, Pluto Monza Co Invest LLP, Pluto Development Partners LLP, Pluto Capital Management LLP.
Nice to have a friend ‘on the inside’. For some, the week just got better.