Eddie Izzard: who is controversial comedian and what are her political views as she campaigns to be MP?

Eddie Izzard is a stand-up comedian, actor and activist, who has spent her career passionately campaigning and raising millions of pounds for charities around the world. Now, she’s tackling a political challenge with the same determination, by campaigning to be the next MP of Sheffield.

The comedian, 60, who studied at the University of Sheffield, has a long list of record-breaking achievements to her name. As an avid charity supporter, Izzard participated in a Sports Relief challenge in 2019, where she ran an impressive 43 marathons in 51 days.

She also ran 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa in 2016, to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela which raised £1.35 million.

Izzard, who is multilingual, has been able to connect with people across the world having performed in more than 45 countries speaking in French, Arabic, Spanish, German and Russian.

She officially launched her political campaign on 11 October 2022, in the hopes of replacing Sheffield’s current MP Paul Blomfield, who has chosen to stand down at the next election.

What are Eddie Izzard’s political views?

Eddie Izzard revealed her political stance in 1998, when she was named on a list of the biggest private donors to the Labour Party. The comedian went on to donate nearly £10,000 again 10 years later.

As a Labour Party supporter, she appeared in their party political broadcasts in the run-up to the 2005 general election and 2009 European election. Izzard has continued to show her support for the party throughout the years by attending political rallies and speaking highly of the Labour leaders.

In 2016 and 2017, she ran for a seat on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, but was unsuccessful.

Izzard replaced Christine Shawcroft on the National Executive Committee, following her resignation in March of 2018. However she failed to get re-elected in the role.

The comedian announced that she would like to stand as local Labour Party constituency in Sheffield during an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield in August this year, after it was revealed that the current MP Paul Blomfield intends to stand down at the next election.

The announcement has received mixed reviews from the public, with Izzard officially launching her political campaign on 11 October 2022.

Why has Eddie Izzard received hate?

Eddie Izzard has actively campaigned for more than 125 Labour constituencies across local, general and european elections, since she first announced her interest in pursuing politics back in 2008

She is running amongst several other candidates, who are all hoping to take Labour MP Paul Blomfield’s seat for Sheffield Central. The other candidates hoping to become the next Labour MP, include Mike Buckley, Paul Mason, Rizwana Lala, Jayne Dunn and Abtisam Mohamed.

Eddie has recently opened up about her views and how she has suffered transphobic abuse, after launching her campaign.

Last week, Conservative MP Lee Anderson voiced his opinion on the comedian during a discussion on TalkTV. This was soon followed by a police report filed by Councillor David Hennigan, from Ashfield District Council in Nottinghamshire, who believes the comments were transphobic and “a clear cut hate crime.”

Izzard has responded to backlash surrounding her campaign, saying: “Transphobic attitudes come from all different quarters, unfortunately.

“Join the 21st century – trans people exist. I exist.”