Domestic violence campaigners lay down on red carpet at ‘Suffragette’ premiere

Members of domestic-violence awareness group Sisters Uncut stormed the red carpet at the London premiere of Suffragette on Wednesday, lying down on the red carpet next to each other and refusing to move.

A horde of feminist protestors rushing the red carpet caused drama of the unscripted variety at Tuesday’s London premiere of “Suffragette“.

A handful of unabashed supporters from a group called Sisters Uncut jumped the barrier and sprawled across the red carpet, leaving security scrambling as they tried to pick them up and carry them away.

Suffragette tells the story of members of the women’s suffragette movement that campaigned to give women the right to vote.

Xposé presenter Lisa Cannon was at the event which was held in London’s Leicister square and tweeted this video of the protest.

In the United Kingdom, two women a week on average are killed at the hands of a partner or ex-partner.

It argues government “austerity has reduced the availability of refuges, benefits, social housing and legal aid”. She said: “I’m glad our film has done something”.

Ms Bonham Carter said at the premiere that the protesters had the “perfect response”. “We are an unbalanced society – women and men – and films like this inspire conversations about how we can correct that imbalance”.

Suffragette opened the London Film Festival which runs from 7 to 18 October.

Mulligan, who is married to musician Marcus Mumford, said women still have a long way to go before they are on an equal footing with men. We are optimistic that things need to change and brilliant actresses like Jennifer Lawrence are making enormous amounts of money in the box office and Hollywood is starting to realise there might be something in it’.

Anne Marie Duff, who has a young son, has also been educating her child about gender equality.

She explained: ‘We are all the same.

Before the premiere, Meryl – who plays Emmeline Pankhurst in the film – spoke about how she struggled to comprehend how there were still so few women in enterprises around the globe.

“It’s timely because the cast of the film is entirely white and they are running with this slogan, “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” which implies passivity or acceptance of being a slave”.