Abdisham Mohammed, a local councillor, was elected by party members of the local constituency after winning 433 votes. Izzard came second with 175 votes. Rizwana Lana, backed by left-wing party figures including MPs Nadia Whittome and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, received 173 votes. Mohamed, a human rights lawyer, called the selection “the price of my life”. He will replace Paul Blomfield, who is leaving with a majority of 27,273. On Twitter, he said: “We have faced huge amounts of abuse, racism or transphobia throughout this campaign. It was very difficult to overcome this and continue to run positive campaigns. However, we all made it.” Izzard, 60, who identifies as a transgender woman, congratulated Mohamed on her victory, writing on Twitter: “She will make a fine MP and I look forward to campaigning with her over the coming months and years.” Speaking to the Guardian in October, Izzard said she had been subjected to “a barrage of transphobic abuse” since announcing her candidacy. A gender-bending feminist took a photo of Izzard using the women’s toilet at a campaign event in September, tweeting it with the caption “exiting the ‘women’s’” toilet. Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, was criticized after he told Talk TV in October that he “would not follow [Izzard] in the toilets’ if Izzard came to parliament. Rosie Duffield, the Labor MP for Canterbury in Kent, suggested she would rather be arrested than refer to Izzard as a “woman”. Responding to Duffield’s comments, Izzard said: “It needs to be brought into the 21st century. He has to catch up with the rest of us. The vast majority of the world is now moving forward.” Izzard said 98% of the people she met in Sheffield wished her luck and she only received abuse from a “vocal minority”. Izzard announced that she adopted the pronouns “she” and “her” two years ago. Speaking to the Guardian, Izzard said she didn’t mind being called “he/she” and said: “I’m not telling anyone else to do anything.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “Changing my pronouns after so many years of being out seemed to be more in line with the way I was living my life,” she said. Izzard was the only candidate on the list not to live in Sheffield, although she insisted she was better placed to represent the constituency than an “overburdened local councillor” because “their activism was local and my activism was national and international”. He has been a member of the Labor Party since 1995 and started an accountancy degree in Sheffield in the 1980s before leaving school to pursue a career in comedy. She lives in London but had promised to move her “main residence” to Sheffield.
