Eddie Izzard accuses Tories of manufacturing a culture war: 'It's not there'

Eddie Izzard has accused the Conservative Party of manufacturing a culture war to pit the public against each other, saying that she has no experience of it being a problem.

Disagreements in government over how to handle trans rights, Scotland's Gender Recognition Reform Bill, and access to single-sex spaces has led to talk of a "culture war", but the trans comedian who is standing for Labour MP for Brighton Pavilion says that she doesn't think the culture war exists.

She told Politics Joe in a TikTok video from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool: "It's the Tories' culture war. There is no culture war. It's not there. As a trans person, it's not there."

Izzard added that her experiences had been positive, with people stopping her to congratulate her on "being your authentic self".

The comedian added of the Tories: "They're trying to divide and conquer. They've always tried to do that.

Read more: Pink shames troll who compared her to Suzy Eddie Izzard

"'Could we possibly get a culture war?' You could hear the meeting in your mind of the Tories saying, 'We've got to stoke up people, keep saying culture war.'

"It's not there. There are people who are out and proud and positive, LGBTQ people have been coming out for years. I came out almost 40 years ago - 40 years ago! - how much notice do people need?"

Talking about her move into politics in recent years, Izzard said that her aim was to help people and said of being trans: "This doesn't define me."

Izzard, who previously stood for election in Sheffield Central where she came second, drew comparisons between what she was doing in the year that she came out as trans and what former Tory PM Boris Johnson had been doing in the same year.

She smiled as she said: "I came out in '85 - that's the same year that Boris Johnson was doing the Bullingdon Club and trashing places and drinking himself stupid and whatever.

"When he was doing that, I was coming out as trans. I think my year was more positive than his.

"I'll leave it to the Great British people to decide."

Earlier this year, the 61-year-old revealed that she would like to called Suzy and preferred to use the pronouns she/her.