Mick Hartley

Eddie "Suzy" Izzard has failed in his bid to be Labour parliamentary candidate in Brighton Pavilion. Could it be, wonders Independent writer Sean O'Grady, that he's just too beautiful for the ugly world of politics?

Such a beautiful person, inside and out, she can’t really want to fade away on some select committee? Frankly, I’d have thought she would have much more influence – indeed, already has much more of a profile – doing what she does now than mouldering away on the backbenches for the duration of her rather dull political career.

It’s interesting that those two great, progressive, left-leaning cities – both of which have enormous student populations, and a huge Green vote – are where Izzard has sought and failed to be nominated as the official Labour candidate.

It's a mystery alright.

But what are the reasons for Izzard’s failure to make headway in the ugly world of politics? It’s difficult to surmise, but one hopes that it’s not a form of transphobia, either on the part of the party leadership using the dark arts to block her progress; or some timidity in the party of the constituency party members.

God forbid. But this is Brighton, well known for being a hotbed of, um, anti-trans activists.

There is a kind of ruthless determination in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to let nothing get in the way of winning the next election, up to and including denouncing its last leader, Jeremy Corbyn, once so popular and beloved. This discipline has been imposed from the top, of course, but it is also self-imposed by the activists grown weary of being a mere party of protest and letting the country down.

What they see in Izzard, fairly or otherwise, is probably someone best suited to protesting rather than making tough decisions on priorities. Eddie Izzard is just too nice and kind and too beautiful a personality to be a Labour MP in the Starmer era, frock or not.

Yes, that must be it. Nothing to do with him having no grasp of the issues, and being quite clearly a hubristic chancer.