Suzy Eddie Izzard claims right-wing comedians tend to be 'sexist and racist'

Suzy Eddie Izzard has said right-wing comedians "tend to be sexist and racist".

The 61-year-old stand-up comic, actor and political activist - who recently revealed she would like to called Suzy - was discussing her ambition to become an MP with Ian Collins on TalkTV.

Collins asked Izzard if she agreed that stand-up comedy in general was "more Left than Right when it came to politics".

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She replied: "Yes, because right-wing stand-ups tend to be sexist and racist comedians who we thought would’ve gone away, but they’re still there.

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"And there are still some circuits where some people still don’t like people of different races and different sexes."

Collins commented: "But there’s bound to be some really good comics who just happen to vote Conservative."

Izzard joked: "Yes probably. Do you have a list? I’m not sure."

Izzard joined the Labour Party in 1995 and unsuccessfully ran for a place on Labour's governing body in 2016 and 2018, as will standing to become Sheffield’s Labour candidate at the next general election.

She said of mixing comedy and politics: "Comedy is a good weapon to puncture pomposity, it takes things down – it’s not a great weapon for building in politics.

"Comedy has to be used as the light relief at the end of the paragraph, you need to say, ‘These are my positive ideas on life and the other team, well let me tell you the comedy about the other team.' That’s how it works.

"The actual comedy tool that I have developed does not really work, but it can get pretty dry in politics so the occasional light relief of pointing out things is, I think, [a weapon]."

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Izzard has been openly transgender since 1985 but in December 2020 announced she wanted to be "based in girl mode from now on".