Eddie Izzard launches bid to be Labour MP
Comic hopes to stand in Sheffield Central
Eddie Izzard has officially thrown her hat into the ring to become Labour’s next MP for Sheffield Central.
The current MP, Paul Blomfield, has a 27,273 majority but is standing down at the next election.
Although no selection process has been formally started by Labour, Izzard has launched a social media campaign, saying: ‘Labour ideals of fairness and equality have been at the core of my life. I'm standing to be the next Labour MP for Sheffield Central to support the city that has supported me.’
The comic has been a long-term supporter of Labour and was a student at Sheffield. She told BBC Radio Sheffield: ‘It's an amazing seat to be able to stand for, if the people of Sheffield Central wish to have me there I will be there.
‘I would love to be here as my whole creative career started from here, all the way to Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Garden and around 45 countries in the world.’
Here is her campaign video:
Labour ideals of fairness and equality have been at the core of my life. I’m standing to be the next Labour MP for Sheffield Central to support the city that has supported me.
— Eddie Izzard for Sheffield Central (@EddieIzzardLab) October 11, 2022
Please join me, in taking on this great challenge.https://t.co/aVjaLLga9L
For Sheffield. For Labour. pic.twitter.com/Mw6xK7cBXA
At the Labour conference last month, trans rights critics including Father Ted writer Graham Linehan, attacked her for using women-only toilets – while supporters branded the backlash transphobic.
Linehan wrote an open letter saying: ‘Eddie, I say this as a huge fan of your comedy, if you ever went into a woman’s space with my daughter in it, you would be out on your ear, beekeeper joke or no beekeeper joke. Those young girls you famously fled from were right to make you feel uncomfortable in the women’s toilets. You should be uncomfortable in women’s toilets. You should not be in women’s toilets.
‘Stop insulting women, Eddie, don’t invade their spaces. The appropriation of a sex is just as cruel and dehumanising as the appropriation of a race or a class or anything else that is not yours.’
Published: 12 Oct 2022
