Phipps stood unsuccessfully for Peterborough in 1774, but was returned unopposed in 1780. The English Chronicle wrote about him in 1781:
Is a gentleman of small fortune in the island of St. Kitt’s, but being a known and tried enemy to the present Administration, he was, on that account, highly acceptable to the electors of Peterborough ... Mr. Phipps is not said to be a man of shining talents ... He breeds and fights cocks to admiration, and is as much distinguished after the matches are concluded, for drowning the fatigues of the war in a social bowl as any man, though that is a bold word, who sits within the honoured environs of St. Stephen’s Chapel.
Phipps voted for Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, and for Pitt’s parliamentary reform proposals, 7 May; he voted against Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov., and supported Pitt. He was re-elected unopposed in 1784, but his health gave way soon afterwards,