Eddie Izzard snatches defeat from the jaws of victory

He’s done it again. For a third time, Eddie Izzard has failed to be elected onto Labour’s National Executive Committee. After a short-lived stint on the NEC, the comedian-turned-activist has lost his place in the most recent election.

This is a particular impressive feat – even for Izzard – because he managed to get fewer votes than a man disowned by Momentum over anti-Semitism allegations. Izzard received 67,819 votes, around 2500 less than Peter Willsman, who was the last candidate elected. In case you missed it, Willsman is the Corbynite who was disowned by Momentum after suggesting Jewish ‘Trump fanatics’ were behind claims of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. He said that, ‘some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump – they are Trump fanatics and all the rest of it.’

Izzard became a member of the NEC in March this year, after Christine Shawcroft resigned over claims of anti-Semitism. It emerged that Shawcroft had opposed suspending a council candidate who was accused of denying the Holocaust.