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Oscar-nominated actor Samantha Morton has come to Liz Truss’s defence, as she blamed double standards for the treatment the former prime minister received after her historically short stint in office.

Truss was widely ridiculed for not outlasting a lettuce, after the 48-year-old resigned after 45 days – making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

But The Serpent Queen star hit out at the “vitriol” Truss received, in a new interview with The Times.

“We’ve had some horrific male prime ministers yet the vitriol that’s dished out to Margaret Thatcher or Liz Truss or Theresa May is just wrong,” she said.

“You can say Liz Truss did a bad job, and she did, but there isn’t such a nastiness when men do an equally pathetic job.”

The 47-year-old said she identifies with Catherine De Medici, whom she portrays on the MGM Prime Video series, because she shows how “women get a harder time than men”.

The Serpent Queen follows the reign of the 14-year-old orphan Medici, who went on to rule France for three decades, gathering a reputation for ruthless authority and a predilection for poisonings.

“She was a trendsetter,” Morton said. “She brought appreciation of arts and music and a legacy of patronage to the French court. And she was the first person in France to wear knickers. Brilliant.”

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The Minority Report actor has recently broken into the music scene, releasing her first album Daffodils & Dirt earlier this year.

She was awarded a Bafta fellowship in February, which is the film awards body’s highest accolade. She dedicated the win to “to every child in care, or who has been in care and who didn’t survive”.

Morton grew up in care homes, experienced homelessness and was charged with attempted murder, subquently reduced to a charge of threats to kill, when she pulled a knife on a girl in the care home where she stayed. She later apologised for the event.

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The star opened up about her future hopes to do more for children in care, starting with an audience with a cabinet minister.

“I’m hoping to get an audience with the minister for children and talk about the privatisation of the care system — it’s corrupt and it’s broken,” she said in the interview.

“I think it’s highly unlikely that a child in care, who was homeless, with a criminal record, could end up living and working in Hollywood now. You have to pay to go to Television Workshop these days.”

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