INSIDE CROYDON INVESTIGATES: The Conservative MP for Croydon South is the subject of at least two complaints to Parliament’s Standards Commissioner, following a report published by Inside Croydon earlier this month, over what appear to be long-delayed declarations of financial interests
Conservative MP Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has been reported to the Standards Commissioner at Westminster by at least two of his Croydon South constituents.
Shadow home secretary, shadowy finances: Chris Philp has been an MP since 2015
The locals were concerned by a detailed report published by Inside Croydon earlier this month which showed that their MP has owned 7,267 ordinary shares in Galenic Laboratories Ltd, a company run by his wife, Elizabeth Philp.
Chris Philp held the shares since the company was established, in 2019, including the period in 2022 when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury. But public records show that Philp registered the shares only relatively recently.
MPs are required to update their register of interests within 28 days.
In one of the complaints submitted to Daniel Greenberg, the Standards Commissioner, and which has been seen by Inside Croydon, a Croydon South constituent writes: “I believe my MP, Chris Philp (Croydon South) has breached Rule 5 of the Code of Conduct by failing to register an interest at the appropriate time.
“The interest concerned is Mr Philp’s holding of 7,267 shares in Galenic Laboratories Ltd, a company in which his wife Mrs Elizabeth Philp has a controlling interest.
“Mr Philp declared the said interest in November 2024. But I believe he should have declared it earlier. His name appears on the register of shareholders going back to 2019.
“I understand that MPs should declare shareholdings which are greater than 15% of issued share capital or valued at more than £70,000.
“Based on Galenic Laboratories Ltd’s accounts for 2023, the total shareholdings in the company at that time were worth £1,633,369. Also at that time there were 139,467 shares issued, meaning that each share was worth approximately £11.71. Mr Philp’s shareholding of 7,267 shares therefore appears to have been worth about £85,000 in 2023, well in excess of the level that required reporting.
“I believe Mr Philp had a particular duty to report his shareholdings fully and on time, as he was a Government minister at the relevant time and his wife had a controlling interest in the company.”
Company accounts: according to publicly available documents, Philp’s shareholding in his wife’s company exceeded the threshold for declaration long before Nov 2024
Philp is thought to be a millionaire, with further interests in a variety of property development companies. He is a partner in the property finance and investment company Pluto Capital Management LLP and a major shareholder in many of its subsidiaries. But despite repeated calls, he has refused to publish his tax returns, as many other senior Tory MPs have done.
When contacted by Inside Croydon for our initial report into his business affairs, Philp said: “There is a requirement to register an interest (that is a shareholding) in a company if the value of the shareholding exceeds a certain value or exceeds a certain percentage of the company.
“I have complied with that obligation.”
Read more: Secretive MP Philp’s shares in wife’s company raise questions
Read more: Croydon MP refutes Sky’s claims over financial interests
Read more: ‘Rabbit hutch’ flats and the Chief Secretary: Philp’s conflicts
Read more: MP Jones’s donations and her connection with Flint lobby firm
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How many signatures do we need to trigger a Recall process to get rid of him? (10% of voters in Croydon South?)
That’s not how it works. Voters can’t initiate one.
But one can follow an adverse standards report with a punishment of a suspension of at least 10 days.
There are a couple of other situations where a recall petition can be initiated available via the search engine of your choice.
Unless Philp is given a prison sentence, suspended from Parliament for at least a fortnight or found guilty of fiddling expenses, there is no recall process. Unfortunately the Recall of MPs Act 2015 does not include being an irritating lying pillock as one of the potential triggers
Always remember who was out in Montenegro searching for Russian investment well before the Reform Grifters like George Cottrell or Oscar Drewitt or whatever his name was out there funding Farage through untraceable Crypto Currency dealings.
Philp isn’t just the “nose in search of a bum”, he’s also the ‘snout in search of swill’