'Labour has lost control ...it's time for serious solutions'

THE SHADOW Home Secretary’s day job involves thinking about threats from terrorists and rogue states which would keep most people awake at night.

- David williamson

The father-of-two has no doubt Russia is behind acts of murder and sabotage, and he ardently opposes China building a “super-embassy” in the UK.

He warns this could become a base for “pan-European espionage”.

But Chris Philp is also outraged at the “heartbreaking” damage Labour is inflicting on an economy he says is in a state of “peril” claiming that “tens of thousands” of jobs could soon be lost.

While he has been an MP for almost a decade, he possesses the drive of a new arrival and yearns to get back into government.

For some MPs Opposition is a chance to take a breather but Mr Philp has always lived a high-energy life.

As a youngster growing up in South-east London, he remembers: “I did a paper round, I used to wash cars for neighbours, my first proper job was stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s, so I’ve always believed in hard work.”

Winning a place at St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington would unlock new opportunities.

“I’m a huge fan now of grammar schools and would love to see them expanded,” he says.

“No question - without that grammar school I would never have got to Oxford to study physics.”

After a spell at elite management consultancy McKinsey and adventures with a distribution start-up, he challenged Oscar-winning actress and Labour MP Glenda Jackson for her Hampstead and Kilburn constituency in 2010, finishing just 42 votes behind her. In 2013 he faced an intense personal drama when his twins, a son and a daughter, were born at just 25 weeks.

He credits the NHS with saving their lives.

The 48-year-old won Croydon South at the next election and was entrusted with a string of ministerial posts under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss serving as her Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Rishi Sunak.

The challenge of getting back into government has been complicated by the arrival of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in Parliament.