Politics? I'm ready for it - abuse for transvestism made me tough, Eddie Izzard says

The comedian and would-be politician says people have previously attacked in him in the street and shouted "endless abuse" at him

Izzard says he's prepared for the scrutiny if he runs for office (Reuters)

Revered comedian Eddie Izzard has said that he’s ready for the heightened press scrutiny should he follow through with his political ambitions, saying that the abuse he has suffered as a transvestite toughened him up.

“I’ve always been ready for the papers to go for me. I always thought they probably would at some point,” Izzard said in an interview with Radio Times.

“I’ve had people attack me in the street, I’ve had people shout endless abuse at me. What are they going to say in print that’s going to be worse than that? If you’re going to be a transvestite, and you’re going to be out in public, you’ve got to be tough enough.”

East Sussex boy and Labour supporter Izzard has previously stated his intention to start running for London Mayor in 2019 and has recently been supporting the Scottish independence No campaign.

In an interview with the Guardian last year the 52-year-old referred to Boris and said that the Mayoral race is a “personality-led thing”. And if he doesn’t succeed? He’ll simply run to become an MP instead.

In his latest comments he added that he was in no rush to secure the nearer nomination for the Mayoral election in 2016 “because I’ve spent so many years putting this career together.

“If I’m going to pack it away or put it into hibernation, I need to pack it away correctly. There’s just some stuff I need to do before then.”

He also made it clear that he’s no monarchist: “Hereditary privilege is crazy to me. We should widen the gene pool and elect a head of state for five years” - sentiments that he poked fun at on his Twitter feed this weekend showing a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Earlier this year he said would probably lose fans over his views on an independent Scotland, in comments he made as he geared up for an April fundraising gig for the Better Together campaign.