Philip was born in 1972 in Doncaster and he graduated from the University of Huddersfield with an Upper Second honours degree in Historical and Political Studies. When not working Philip enjoys all sports, in particular horse-racing.
Before being first elected as the MP for Shipley in 2005, Philip worked at Asda in Leeds as a Senior Marketing Manager and before that as a Customer Services Project Manager.
Campaigning in Shipley
Philip thinks it is vital to be fully involved in the local community and he has served as both a parish councillor and a school governor. He was part of the 'Baywatch' campaign to improve parking facilities for disabled people and also served on the Better Hospital Food Panel, chaired by Lloyd Grosman.
Philip has also been actively campaigning to prevent the planned housing developments in his constituency (at Menston and Micklethwaite). He believes that the infrastructure does not exist to support these additional developments and that the proposals would negatively affect the nature of many local villages.
Philip continues to call for a fairer slice of the 'transport cake' for his constituency as well as working with local residents on issues such as the flight path of planes from Leeds/Bradford Airport and helping parents to get their children into the schools of their choice.
Career
Philip was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Shipley in 2005 with a majority of 422 and was re-elected in 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019 with a 50.8% share of the vote.
Philip is currently one of the 41 members of the panel of Chairs, appointed by the Speaker to chair Westminster Hall Debates and Committee Stages of Bills.
Throughout his career in Parliament Philip has also previously served on the following committees:
- Executive Committee of the 1922 Committee (2006 - 2012)
- Culture, Media & Sport Committee (2006 - 2015)
- Modernisation of the House of Commons Committee (2007 - 2010)
- Backbench Business Committee (2010 - 2012)
- Privacy and Injunctions Joint Committee (2011 - 2012)
- Justice Select Committee (2015-2017)
Philip was the first MP to publicly call for Britain to withdraw from the European Union and is a member of The Freedom Association's 'Better Off Out' campaign.
He is also the Parliamentary Spokesman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness.
Philip has twice won an award at the Spectator Parliamentary Awards as well as ITSPA Champion Award 2015.
Key focuses
Issues that Philip feels particularly strongly about are maintaining law and order, tackling asylum and immigration problems, protecting the countryside (particularly from over-development) and ensuring pensioners get a better deal.
Philip is keen to encourage anybody from the Shipley constituency to contact him with regard to any individual local concerns or on behalf of any local organisations who he would be willing to speak to.