Eddie Izzard has failed in her second attempt to be selected as a Labour candidate and represent the party as an MP at the next general election.
The comedian and activist, 61, who first spoke about being trans in 1985, had hoped to stand as the Labour MP for Brighton Pavilion but was beaten by the music industry activist Tom Gray.
Last year she failed to be selected as the Labour candidate for Sheffield Central. She had promised to fight for a “passion-driven creative education system”, increase the supply of affordable homes, secure more money for the NHS and champion mental health if she was selected.
Caroline Lucas, the longstanding Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, plans to stand down at the next election and Labour hopes to take the seat.
Gray, a British songwriter and composer who has won the Mercury prize, posted on X that he was “delighted and humbled” to be selected as the Labour candidate, and thanked Izzard and the other potential candidates for showing “solidarity and integrity” during the contest.
In January, Izzard will play Hamlet in a one-person show in New York that is due to run for five weeks, a schedule that was criticised by a former Brighton councillor, Caroline Penn, during the campaign. Penn tweeted: “You can’t lead a parliamentary campaign if you are in New York for three months performing your one-person show.”
However, Izzard told Brighton and Hove News she would cancel the run if she was selected as the candidate and the election was called before April. Otherwise, she said, she would campaign via Zoom and phone.
She told the paper: “From the moment I am selected, I will be working full time on overturning the 20,000 Green majority in Brighton Pavilion and will be moving to Brighton to make this happen.”
