BBC is criticised for giving Hollywood actress a platform for claiming British women are 'being forced into prostitution' because of ‘Victorian-style’ poverty'

The BBC has been condemned for allowing Hollywood actress Samantha Morton to deliver a string of Left-wing rants on its flagship programme The One Show.

Tory MPs and historians are furious that the Minority Report star was unchallenged over her claim that British mothers are being forced into prostitution because of ‘Victorian-style’ poverty caused by Government policies.

Morton delivered her anti-Tory diatribe on Friday’s edition of the live programme, which regularly draws up to three million viewers.

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Samanatha Morton, 41, delivered a rant claiming British mothers are being forced into prostitution because of ‘Victorian-style’ poverty on Friday's episode of The One Show

She said: ‘With the benefits changing to Universal Credit and single parents being penalised by this Government, and the Coalition government before, people that have literally nothing, nobody to turn to, are sadly going into sex work to literally just feed the kids or pay the rent.’

Morton, 41, who was on the show to plug her upcoming Channel 4 drama, I Am Kirsty, went on to criticise ‘all the cutbacks’ which she claimed had forced the closure of children’s homes, women’s refuges and Sure Start daycare centres across the country.

She added: ‘That level of abject poverty – like Victorian England we are talking – what are women forced to do?’

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Neither regular host Alex Jones nor Friday night’s guest presenter Peter Andre challenged the star about her comments

The mother of three, who grew up in the care system, then launched an attack on Margaret Thatcher and her government’s policies while talking about her childhood.

Neither regular host Alex Jones nor Friday night’s guest presenter Peter Andre challenged the star about her comments.

Tory MP Damian Collins, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, last night urged the BBC to review its guidelines. He said: ‘The BBC needs to be very careful with magazine programmes, ones where people don’t expect to see political debate.

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'People that have literally nothing, nobody to turn to, are sadly going into sex work to literally just feed the kids or pay the rent,’ she said on the Friday episode, which usually attracts an audience of three million

‘Is it appropriate for people to use these kinds of shows as a political platform? If this had been a news programme or a discussion programme then there would have been other guests or a host who could have challenged these opinions.’ Historian Dr David Starkey described Morton’s comments as ‘absolute rubbish’.

He said: ‘My father, who was an orphan at the age of 11 in 1918, was unemployed from 1928 until 1935. He had to have all his teeth extracted without anaesthetic because that saved him half a crown. That was real poverty. We can’t envisage the levels of poverty, the absoluteness of it.

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Samantha Morton leaves Broadcasting House after her appearance on The One Show on Friday

‘Because we listen to actresses we have lost any sense of what we’ve emerged from. For people like Samantha Morton to burble on like this is simply a disgrace.’ Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘The BBC has shown its true colours and the only reason they can do this is because of their TV tax. If it went to a subscription model, people would not pay for this propaganda.’

Morton, who wore a T-shirt brought out in the 1990s to support Liverpool dockers in a long-running dispute, is currently starring on American TV in Zombie drama The Walking Dead.

It was the second time in a week that a guest on the show criticised Government policy. On Monday, Casualty actor Charles Venn presented a film in which he criticised cuts to youth services.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘It’s wrong to suggest bias from a topical magazine show on the basis of a film on youth services at a time of national anxiety about knife crime, which included a response from the Government, and a passing reference to cuts made during an appearance to discuss someone’s work as an actress.’