A former prostitute claims current MSPs bought sex from her when she sold her body for money.
Edinburgh Eastern MSP Ash Regan said the woman came forward to her after recognising her former male clients on TV, reports The Daily Record.
Regan said MSPs who buy sex should think about declaring their activities during debates on prostitution due to having a “vested interest”.
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The revelation came as Regan launched a Bill to clampdown on people who pay for sex.
Some activities related to prostitution are currently illegal while sex buyers can fall foul of kerb crawling laws. Regan’s Bill would turn the tables by criminalising the purchase of sexual acts and decriminalising the selling of sex.
She is proposing fines of up to £10,000 and six month jail sentences for sex buyers.
Speaking to the Record, Regan said a woman who recently left prostitution in Scotland told her she had MSP clients:
“We know that in Scotland about one man in ten will buy sex, so that would suggest to us that there is a likelihood that there would be MSPs that buy sex, and there would be people in the civil service that buy sex.
“It was confirmed to me today that there are current, serving MSPs – and that is plural, so not just one, but there are multiple – who are sex buyers.”
She added: “She described seeing them on television”.” Asked if she believed the woman, Regan replied: “Yes.”
The MSP, who joined Alba after quitting as an SNP Minister, was asked if male MSPs should declare sex buying.
She said: “I think this is something maybe we need to think about, that people will be voting on this where perhaps they do have a vested interest in it, and it’s a different way to think about this debate, that there could be people in the Parliament who are currently sex buyers.”
Holyrood currently has 70 male MSPs.
At the launch, Regan described prostitution as “modern slavery” and said: “Between 6,000 and 8,000 women we think are involved in prostitution in Scotland, which is not an insignificant numbers.
The Bill would criminalise sex buying
“I don’t want to live in a country where you can order women like a pizza, with no consequences for the people that do it.”
She said studies show that former prostitutes will exit with PDST rates higher than combat veterans.
Fiona Broadfoot, chief executive of Build A Girl UK, joined Regan at the event at Holyrood yesterday to back the Bill.
She said she was a prostitute decades ago, starting when she was 15 and working in Edinburgh saunas – effectively brothels – in her early 20s. She said of the “very ordinary men” who used her: “They weren’t dirty old men in raincoats. They were doctors, teachers, police officers.”
She was asked if it is likely male MSPs had used prostitutes. “Absolutely, 100%,” she said. “It’s usually powerful men. It’s usually wealthy men.
“A lot of the act is about power and control. For some reason, coming to visit a girl or woman in the sex trade really turns them on and it’s a real kick.”
Asked whether male MSPs should declare paying for sex during any debate of the Regan Bill, she said:
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“Absolutely. If you don’t want to vote for this and believe in decriminalisation, stand tall and be counted. I really hope your daughters never, ever end up in that situation.”
She described herself as a “sex trade survivor” and said: “I spent 11 years entrenched in the life. “Every day I thought I would be murdered, every day I experienced rape, by ordinary men, ordinary men whose lives were not impacted for one second like the women and girls who were being used.
“I was criminalised, my perpetrators weren’t, none of the men who bought me, none of them who trafficked me about and profited from me.”
The bill, based on the Nordic model of targeting sex buyers, would also quash historic convictions and establish a right to public service support for prostitutes.
The Bill’s focus is on sex acts and would not include lap dancing bars or services bought through sites such as OnlyFans.
However, Scottish sex workers have responded to the Regan Bill by launching a campaign to fight the proposed new law.
The ‘Scotland for Decrim’ has warned that the laws would “put them in more danger”, push the industry underground and expose people to more violence.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “Scotland for Decrim absolutely rejects Ash Regan’s attempts to bring in the Nordic Model on sex work in Scotland. As a sex worker-led coalition campaigning for our rights, we know that this offensive bill will endanger sex workers by exposing us to more violence, poverty, and exploitation.
“Criminalising clients does not solve the reasons why people go into sex work: because of financial need, caring responsibilities, disability, or simply preferring this work to other kinds of work.
“Sex workers are the experts on our own needs. We know that only full decriminalisation will protect our safety, health, and human rights, giving us the power to choose when and how we work. The Scottish Government must also urgently strengthen the social security system so that everyone has access to the resources they need to live, and so that no one has to do sex work if they don’t want to.”