Chris Philp.

Croydon South's MP has been most active recently on assisted dying — breaking from the majority of his Conservative colleagues across five separate votes on 20 June 2025. He backed the bill's Third Reading, supported amendments requiring palliative care assessments, and voted against a clause that would have barred applications driven by fear of being a burden. His position places him 53 percentage points above his party's average on assisted dying access, one of the sharpest deviations in his voting record. Away from that bill, he has voted consistently with Conservative opposition positions on defence spending and puberty blockers, and opposed the government's steel tariff regulations, arguing they would damage aerospace and engineering manufacturers reliant on specialist imports.

Philp voted in 63% of recorded divisions — below the Commons average — and aligns with his party on 97% of votes, making the assisted dying cluster genuinely unusual. His speech activity is high: 249 contributions across 92 debates, with crime (60 speeches) and immigration (47) dominating. He scores 94% on pro-business votes and 100% against tax increases, fitting a conventional right-of-party economic profile. He previously served as a minister under the last Conservative government, which explains his prominence on policing and immigration topics as shadow home secretary.

Recent local coverage, primarily from Inside Croydon, has been sharply critical. A July 2025 piece accused him of opposing development publicly while his party benefited from building projects locally; a May 2025 article alleged he privately acknowledged Brexit weakened border control while publicly claiming the opposite. His recent news sentiment averages a modestly positive 0.21 across 75 articles, driven mainly by crime and immigration coverage rather than constituency performance stories. He holds no current committee roles, so his public record rests largely on his voting and speech activity.