No rush… plenty of seats: pictures of the frequently half-empty main hall at the Tory conference in Manchester have betrayed the real state of the party
WALTER CRONXITE, Political Editor, on what has been a difficult few days for Croydon’s Conservatives at their party’s poorly attended conference
Running late: shadow home secretary has been subject to overt criticisms for rudeness at the Tory Pary conference
More problems for Croydon’s top Tories at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, where Croydon South MP Chris Philp has been publicly criticised for showing up late to an event where champions of industry had paid £3,000 for their tickets.
By the day, Philp appears to resemble Alan B’stard even more. Just without the charm.
Yesterday, an audience member at one session at the conference in Manchester upbraided the shadow home secretary for disinterestedly looking at his mobile phone when someone was speaking. “I’m listening,” Philp simpered in his feeble defence.
Then, according to the Politico website’s diary, Philp turned up 20 minutes late to a business round table: entry fee, 3,000 sovs, guv.
“He stuttered some apologies and blamed media interviews for holding him up,” Politico says.
Urgent call: how Croydon South MP Philp’s rude behaviour was outed yesterday
“Which isn’t helpful… since business folks and lobbyists like those paying for time with Philp are already pretty cheesed off about even being in Manchester for the conference of a party that seems miles from power.”
In the bar at the Midland Hotel, one lobbyist told Politico last night: “All the big corporates are pissed off and moaning ‘Why are we even here?’”
Indeed, given the pathetically poor turn-out of Conservative Party grassroots members, if the lobbyists and corporates weren’t in attendance in Manchester, then…
Hampstead-based Philp, 49, has been MP for the apparently safe Tory seat of Croydon South since 2015, having been selected as candidate by the members and assorted bigots (such as Anne Piles) in the Croydon Conservative Federation ahead of the likes of Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick.
Whether the constituents in Purley, Coulsdon and Kenley think they had a lucky escape in their choice of wannabe MP may become clearer today, as Philp and Jenrick, the Tories’ shadow on justice, are due to make set-piece speeches on law and order.
Millionaire entrepreneur Philp (who has refused to make his tax returns public) has been given a second chance on the Conservative front bench, after his stellar contribution to the Kwame-kazi budget under PM Liz Truss, which managed to double many Croydon householders’ monthly mortgage payments, and from which the national economy is still struggling to recover.
As shadow home secretary, Philp was expected to announce today the latest authoritarian Tory policy, the extension of stop and search powers in areas with the highest crime rates, allowing police to search people without first having grounds for suspicion. If Philp had bothered to ask some of his own constituents, they’d probably tell him that the Met has already been doing that for years anyway…
Oh dear: BadEnoch’s Tories can’t even spell
Meanwhile, Jenrick, after effing on stage at one conference event, and being recorded making overtly racist remarks about a visit to Birmingham, was set to expand on his big idea to purge the judiciary of anyone who follows the law, and not Tory HQ’s orders. Welcome to Britian [sic] 2025!
And meanwhile, despite Philp, Jenrick and their woefully out-of-her-depth party leader Kemi BadEnoch trying to out-Farage Farage, another 12 Conservative councillors have today defected to Reform UK.
If any Conservative councillors in Croydon wish to announce their defection, to Reform UK, Advance or any other branch of far-right, fascist nut jobs, email us at inside.croydon@btinternet.com to announce your big, brave move… we’d be happy to provide you with the publicity that you deserve.
And the invitation is also open to any Conservative members who wish to share their troubles, or for members of Reform in Croydon who continue to be embarrassed that they were to have a dead woman from Yorkshire as their 2026 Croydon Mayoral candidate.
Read more: Perry takes time out to press the flesh at Tory Party conference
Read more: How chief Nimby Philp built in Tories’ own Purley backyard
Read more: Philp’s taped admission of big Brexit drawback on immigration
Read more: Philp’s Hampstead address exposed by wife’s business dispute
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“allowing police to search people without first having grounds for suspicion” = allowing police to waste their time and harass people without any reason
So a dodo of a conference of a living dead party, & those delusional businessmen think that the CON Party will get back in power? Just look at the sub-standard mps still in that party. Should change its name to the Jellyfish Party, alternatively the Wallpaper Party, and for some the Wet Lettuce Party.
Perhaps Chris Philp’s poor performances at the Conservative party conference are part of a cunning Tory plan to make the other Croydon tory, mayor Piss-poor Perry, look better, as Perry has to go cap in hand to voters in only 6 months’ time? By contrast, the Philp hasn’t got to fight his safe tory seat as an MP again for years so he has plenty of time to turn around his own less-than-stellar performance before anyone gets the opportunity to get rid of him.
You’re suggesting Philp is this crap deliberately.
That’s not the case. He achieves these levels of crapness entirely naturally.
But if the Philp kept his head down, people at the conference would think that Piss-Poor was the worst person from Croydon they had seen. But by appearing at lots of conference events, the hapless Philp can show Croydon is cursed by having multiple hopeless tories. They are both perfect for that quote: “Every time I open my mouth, some idiot starts to speak.”
But this is a Tory conference. There’s loads of Perrys. And loads of Philps. None of them stand out.
Can’t imagine Two Tier Keir out tiering himself
Croydon South historically has been a safe Tory seat but in the 2024 GE it became a Tory marginal.Indeed many people thought Philp would lose his seat. And i’ll wager that if the Reform surge is still gaining traction come the next GE Philp will seriously consider abandoning the Tories and joining them.
All this out-Faraging Farage is getting out of hand.
First Starmer and Mahmood, now Badenoch and Jenrick.
What next: Davey and Polanski?
And God help us if Nigel ever has a notion to out-Farage himself… then we’re in big trouble.
Croydon really is cursed i.t.o. politicians…..we have the worst directly-elected Mayor in Piss-Poor Perry, the worst Tory MP (and “Shadow Home Secretary”, which just shows how few MPs the tories actually have now) in Chris Philp, the worst Labour MP (and a government minister) in Steve Reed.