Eddie Izzard will run for London Mayor in 2020, according to The Sun.
During an interview with the tabloid, Izzard says
I’m going to chuck in comedy in six years to go into politics... You can get people’s attention by doing huge tours and I’d rather do that than throw a TV out of a window. You do that and you’re a rebel. But then you have no telly and a hole in your window. And if you play gigs you earn money, which is good for someone who wants to run for Mayor.
Izzard's designs on City Hall have been long known, and 2020 has always seemed the aimed-for date (if memory serves, we think we said this on a podcast earlier in the year). Six years will be just about the right time to get a campaign going for the 2020 election – and possibly secure the Labour nomination? Izzard was out campaigning for Ken last year and publicly backed the party in 2010. Quite how Labour selectors will feel about that remains to be seen.
The Mayoralty is a personality contest and arguably Eddie Izzard may be more serious than the current incumbent, but would he have the experience necessary to spend four years negotiating budgets and strategy? Though one of Londonist's writers says that, as an associate director of Crystal Palace, the comedian already has his vote sewn up.
Photo by FatTaff from the Londonist Flickr pool
