THE SCOTTISH Parliament is being urged to debate ways to tackle prostitution and take action to save the lives of women working in the sex industry.

Labour MSP Rhoda Grant will tomorrow lodge a motion highlighting the importance of a series of podcasts made by the Women’s Support Project and Zero Tolerance, about the harm the sex industry causes women. She claims they give a long overdue voice to those working in prostitution.

The call comes as attitudes about how best to support sex workers become ever more polarised. Campaigners seeking to eradicate prostitution – which they view as violence against women – claim the debate is being hijacked by those supporting the sex industry, while others believe sex workers deserve rights equal to those doing any other job.

Independent MSP Jean Urquhart has extended a deadline on her consultation about the need to decriminalise sex work. However her opponents believe this must be accompanied by the criminalisation of those buying sex, and proper support for women who want to exit the industry.

Rhoda Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said: “It’s very difficult for people to speak out about negative experiences because we have a powerful lobby for the sex trade which gains financially from ensuring that people think of prostitution as a normal job. People who have experienced it often feel that they are not being heard. Those that do speak out are very brave and it's very important that their voices are listened to.”

Grant said the Parliament must debate the so-called Swedish model, which aims to decriminalise the selling of sex while continuing to criminalise those buying it. Action by the Scottish Government is needed, she added, "to send a very clear signal to the next Parliament that this issue can no longer be ignored”.

Linda Thompson, of the Women’s Support Project, interviewed “Cassie” – an escort in saunas and private flats – about the brutal reality of the sex industry for the podcasts, the second of which will be launched tomorrow.

She agreed it was difficult for women who exit the industry to speak out. “Many are fearful of reprisals from the sex industry, and concerned about the possible impact on themselves and their families,” she added. “We know of women who have been targeted in both online and offline settings.

“We support the Scottish Government’s approach which sees commercial sexual exploitation as a form of violence against women and are keen to see how all partners will work on local and national levels to prevent and eradicate it. This type of violence has no place in a fairer and equal Scotland.”

However Laura Lee, a sex worker and activist, said that the women she worked with were often mothers, speaking up for their livelihoods to protect the income that allowed them to feed their families, who needed workers’ rights to keep them safe.

“The Swedish model [in which selling sex is decriminalised but buying it criminalised] is highly problematic as it drives a wedge between us and the authorities who can help us,” she said. “We want to be given the right to self-organise and work together as women in pairs, making it safer and driving out the need for pimps.”