Comedian Suzy Eddie Izzard is back on the campaign trail for Labour. After missing out on the chance to be the party’s candidate in Sheffield Central earlier this year, Izzard is now seeking selection in the Brighton Pavilion seat. It is currently held by Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s only MP, but she is stepping down at the next election. Izzard’s campaign features a Trump-ish call to action: “Let’s make Brighton Pavilion Labour again.” She has previously expressed a wish not only to be an MP, but to serve in a Labour government as a Cabinet minister, touting possible Treasury credentials as an accounting and financial management graduate.
“I grew up in this county, and I’m proud of my roots,” Izzard, who went to school in Eastbourne, said in a slick campaign video. Her geographical focus seems to have shifted. Earlier this year, she said: “I’d still love to be an MP for Sheffield, anywhere up North. If there is a North/South divide, I wanna fight for the North.” Now she is rushing to the South Downs.
Rishi racing ahead in glam holiday stakes
Politicians are taking off for their summer holidays. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has bagged the most glamorous trip of the lot, flying out to his beach-side apartment in California with the family. Labour politicians can’t match the PM’s jet-setting — Sir Keir Starmer is limiting himself to a staycation with the family this year while shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has taken a holiday in rainy Cornwall. She shared a selfie of herself in a red mac walking a coastal trail. Slightly more adventurous was Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney general, who is on a “girls’ road trip” through Europe. She started off with a round of 11 per cent beers in Bruges, Belgium, and is now hurtling through Germany. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, below, managed to get abroad for business, not pleasure. He is in Zambia.
It seems the producers on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme have also taken a holiday. This morning presenters Justin Webb and Martha Kearney were at a loose end when they had no prompter to read from. “And the headlines this morning ... we’ll be hearing about those shortly,” said Kearney, saving face. What a pro.
