Protests at Meryl Streep premiere

She told the BBC on behalf of all women “we have to be made equal”, noting that the top 10 buyers in the USA for films are men. “It has been read by at least half a million people in the United Kingdom and we have received no complaints”.

They shouted “We are suffragettes” and “Domestic violence cuts kill”, referring to cuts to domestic abuse services.

Suffragette opened the BFI London Film Festival, which runs until October 18.

They called for greater government support against domestic violence.

Groups of women lay down just a few feet from where the likes of Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter were giving interviews.

“I haven’t spoken to them or seen their demands, but I’m happy to see the suffrage movement is alive and happening”, said co-star Romola Garai, 33, (who you may remember from Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights).

Streep then discussed the unfair balance between men and women in the world of film criticism.

Morgan, who wrote the screenplay for the film, starring Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan, said the success she had achieved on projects including The Hour and The Iron Lady had given her the confidence to take more risks in the projects she pitched to producers and broadcasters.

Actress Helena Bonham Carter, who stars as Edith Ellyn in the film, praised the actions of Sisters Uncut, telling Sky News, “If you feel strongly enough about something and there’s an injustice there you can speak out and try to get something changed”.

“I went deep, deep, deep, deep into Rotten Tomatoes, and I counted how many contributors there were – critics and bloggers and writers”, she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Inside Holloway Prison leader of the British Suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst, played by eight-time Golden Globe victor Meryl Streep, staged her first hunger strike to improve conditions for other suffragettes in nearby cells.

The slogan “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave”, which was taken from a speech by suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, was featured on the t-shirt.

Editors of a British magazine have defended Meryl Streep after she came under fire from human rights campaigners for wearing a controversial T-shirt on the cover.