Sheffield Central Labour Candidate - Abtisam Mohamed vs Eddie Izzard

[fromorbit]

If you are based in Sheffield please lend your support to Abtisam Mohamed a strong local woman candidate, a solicitor of Yemeni descent and longstanding Labour Councillor who has done valuable local work for the community including on nurseries. Sheffield Central is a safe Labour seat so whoever is selected is going to Parliament. Eddie Izzard has also launched a campaign but besides being a celebrity, has more glitz than steel, hasn't lived in Sheffield since being a student, plus as we all know is unclear about who they are.

Mohamed has an inspiring story, worked her way up to get a great career going and is focused on getting practical stuff done. She will make a great MP.

Abtisam Mohamed interview
www.thestar.co.uk/news/politics/sheffield-councillor-launches-her-bid-to-become-a-city-mp-3871921

Abtisam Mohamed Campaign page including a great video lots on her local concerns for the city:
abtisammohamed.com/

In contrast Izzard's campaign, getting loads of press coverage, is thin on detail:
www.eddieizzard.uk/

The local paper talked to people who questioned Izzard's chance of winning a few months back:

"In contrast, Jane Armstrong questioned her claim to run in the city.

She wrote: “I had heard this for a while and if she is fancying Central I know a lot of Labour members in that area who are really hostile to having her as a candidate. Not because she isn't nice person, but because people do not like celebrities being parachuted into wards above local candidates."
www.thestar.co.uk/news/politics/eddie-izzard-sheffield-readers-share-their-thoughts-on-comedians-bid-to-be-city-centrals-next-mp-3821984?itm_source=parsely-api

Apparently several other councillors may be standing as well so it should be an interesting contest.

I am not sure when the cut off point if you join Labour locally you will get to vote on who the candidate is. The actual contest has not yet begun yet but if I were local I would be signing up.

twitter.com/abtisam_mohamed/status/1585007137440555008?s=21&t=s3d1qoRVP_zHDYoGwJxNGw

She got it 😀

As long expected the current Labour MP Paul Bloomfield has now endorsed Abtisam:
www.thestar.co.uk/news/politics/sheffield-central-paul-blomfield-mp-endorses-abtisam-mohamed-in-race-to-be-next-labour-candidate-3894520

Joint statement from all 6 candidates against abuse, racism and transphobia in the contest:
twitter.com/Abtisam_Mohamed/status/1585247467637211137

Comments by a Tory MP on the race have been controversial to say the least:
www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/26/tory-mp-under-fire-for-transphobic-comments-about-eddie-izzard

I've slightly missed the boat as Abtisam has been selected, but even so...

I don't think she's been selected yet? Just nominated by the outgoing mp?

Isn't that just the co-op's nomination?

I think it's all still ongoing but she is definitely in the lead?

The contest is still on we just had the long list of 6 candidates still early days.

Run down of bios:
labourlist.org/2022/10/six-make-longlist-to-be-next-labour-candidate-for-sheffield-central/

There are 6 people standing Abitsam has a bunch of endorsements from unions, the Co-op party and local individuals as does Jayne. They are clearly the frontrunners. The union endorsements will indicate support in local branches who get a vote in the final selection.

We are entering a campaign period after that the local party leadership will run out a shortlist it seems near certain Abitsam and Jayne will be on it maybe one or two others. Some time after that they will go to a vote.

I think it is fairly certain Mason will not make shortlist. Izzard is a maybe, really depends on outperforming the locals Mike Buckley and Dr Rizwana Lala. I think Buckley is most likely to make the shortlist if it is three as he is well known to local party.

Yes - I was a bit previous there 🙄

Abtisam Mohamed along with the other candidates has put her name to this twitter.com/EddieIzzardLab/status/1585249647450542080 whilst I realise it rebukes those indulging in racism as well as perceived transphobia I don't think they usually put out statements like this and I don't imagine that the level of racism has changed so one assumes that it is really a call to protect Izzard from women with views he does not like.

It would be good for Sheffield to have a good local candidate but I don't think Abtisam Mohamed is likely to be any different on gender than the vast majority of Labour politicians.

If she came out as GC would she even get elected. Will any GC woman ever be picked to stand for any elected role if she is 'out' before the election?

A conservative MP Lee Anderson has been reported to the police for hate crime. He commented on Eddie and toilets. Will be interesting to see if the police have the time to investigate this.

Ffs it should be a crime for Eddie to be in the womans toilets! He us already on record as harassing teenage girls in there who challenge him! The world has gone mad, and now abti goes and puts out that twitter.

Oh wow.

This could kick off some interesting responses!

It’s on Facebook on the MPs page. I don’t agree with most of what he says but in terms of sex and gender he says what a lot of people think.

I was just listening to Matthew Goodwin on Brendan O’Neill’s podcast and he said that the TWAW position is held by around 5% of the electorate.

Crazy that Labour are willing to alienate themselves from voters like this.

Screenshots of the Facebook post, ‘reactions’ to the post, story of the police report, plus Guardian story of the ‘hatecrime’ from yesterday…

www.chad.co.uk/news/people/ashfield-mp-accused-of-clear-cut-hate-crime-for-remarks-about-eddie-izzard-3895758m

www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/26/tory-mp-under-fire-for-transphobic-comments-about-eddie-izzard

A number of women have been arrested (and of course, later realised, because there is no "crime") for similar comments.

The process is the punishment. I await with interest the Met response to 30p-Lee's comments.

I strongly suspect that it would drop to about 0.05% of the electorate if they were aware that we are taking about Karen White and not Hayley Cropper.

'A conservative MP Lee Anderson has been reported to the police for hate crime. He commented on Eddie and toilets. Will be interesting to see if the police have the time to investigate this.'

Oh FFS. Maybe not a bad thing though, yet more sunlight for the whole issue

Seems that EI has a backup plan:
playbill.com/article/eddie-izzard-will-play-21-characters-off-broadway-in-charles-dickens-great-expectations

Probably going to be a bit too busy to draw the Tombola at the Sheffield CLP Xmas party, eh?

Maybe we should all present ourselves at our local police station and demand to be arrested en mass? Inspired by Rosie, who seems to be setting off a little wave of rebellion.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=sUs1RJabN4s

Silly comment by Lee Anderson. I'd have no problem following Eddie Izzard into the toilet. He is a man and so am I .

Always assuming it was the men's toilet! Yes , it will be interesting to see if he is given a written warning by Knacker of the Yard. Actually he looks a bit intimidating.

I actually think Izzard will struggle. It might be a safe seat but the people of Sheffield will want to vote for someone who can represent their concerns. This will not be a celebrity from London who doesn't know what gender they are.

I'd like to know the source of that figure. I'm not disputing it, but it would be good to be able to cite it.

Why are Labour willing to alienate the electorate? I don't know, but I would guess that a) they are keen to get the youth vote, and much larger proportions of young people believe TWAW than in the electorate as a whole and b) Starmer is probably surrounded by young policy dudes who reassure him that this is a really important civil rights issue and the only people who disagree are silly old women who are such bigots that there is no point trying to win their vote.

The Guardian reports that

In a short telephone interview with the Guardian on Thursday, Izzard said she had suffered a “torrent of transphobic abuse” since announcing her candidacy, including being photographed by a gender-critical feminist using the women’s toilet.

www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/27/eddie-izzard-rules-out-appearing-on-all-women-labour-mp-shortlist

If Izzard is expecting the good people of Sheffield to refer to him as a she I think he's going to alienate a huge amount of people. I hope he comes last.