Sex Workers’ Friends and Family Could Be Criminalised, Campaigners Warn

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Labour MPs are attempting to launch the most “draconian” clampdown on sex work devised in Britain in decades, campaigners have warned.

Sex workers told Novara Media that the measures proposed by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi could unjustly criminalise their friends and family and put prostitutes’ safety at risk.

Antoniazzi, the Labour MP for Gower, has put forward two amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, due to be discussed in parliament on Wednesday.

Clause NC2 seeks to “make it a criminal offence to enable or profit from the prostitution of another person, including by operating a website hosting adverts for prostitution”. This clause states it would be against the law for individuals to assist, facilitate, control, or incite someone to engage in sexual activity for money or another form of benefit anywhere in the world. 

Clause NC3 seeks to outlaw buying, offering, or promising payment in exchange for sexual activity.

The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), a campaign group that supports sex workers, claims the clauses could criminalise “anyone who associates with a sex worker – workmates, drivers, web-makers, receptionists, friends, clients”. The clauses would also criminalise the advertising sites “which sex workers depend on to work independently and in greater safety”.

The amendments to the legislation have gained the support of cross-party MPs, with Labour’s Diane Abbott and Sarah Champion, as well as former Labour MP Rosie Duffield (now an independent) among them.

Niki Adams, a spokesperson for the ECP, said the amendments would “force us [sex workers] to work in isolation and put us at much greater risk of attack and of violence”.

Although it is not illegal for individuals to buy or sell sex from each other in England, Scotland and Wales, many activities associated with prostitution are unlawful, including a sex worker teaming up with another person or a group to protect their safety while working.

Adams warned that the legislation could lead to friends and family being targeted, as the amendments do not specify that the individual must profit from their sex work.

“They are very draconian measures that we really haven’t seen in decades,” she said. “It’s really shocking that it’s coming from a Labour MP who must know that over the last decade or so, austerity cuts have really targeted women, particularly single mothers. Poverty has increased massively and more women are coming to us daily saying that they are either going into prostitution or going back to prostitution after having left for a period of time because they can’t make ends meet.”

Sex workers are in the worst position they have been in since lockdown measures were rolled out during the pandemic, Adams said, explaining that the soaring cost of living is behind the current situation.

She added: “We are getting increasing numbers of calls from women who are desperate and just cannot work out how they are going to get to the end of the week and still have food in the cupboard for their children.”

The campaigner called for MPs to listen to sex workers – something she argued is a fundamentally feminist principle.

“I am a migrant and a single mother,” Iris*, who has worked as a sex worker for over eight years, told Novara Media. “Like many women in my position, I have had a very difficult time but have always done what I could to survive, to support my family and to help others in similar situations.”

She told of how her home was raided by the police three years ago and she was accused of controlling prostitution and trafficking when in actuality she was supporting other migrant sex workers.

“Many of these women do not speak English and have no other way than sex work to earn a living,” Iris added. “Sex work is often the only option that provides them with enough stability to survive and send money back home to their children or elderly parents.”

She explained how she helped women by picking up calls from clients and making bookings, as well as screening out potentially dangerous customers. “I also supported them when they needed medical care or when they had to go to the hospital, acting as an interpreter,” Iris added. “What I did was never about control – it was about making sure they didn’t feel alone in a foreign country. I was just doing everything I could to help protect them and provide safety.”

Iris explained her life has totally fallen apart since the raid, adding that she was arrested and lost her home. She has stopped training as a nurse as she fears if she loses her case, she will be left with a criminal record and so will be barred from such work, she said.

“Now, I live wherever people can offer me a place to stay,” Iris said. “This has meant I can no longer provide my disabled child with a safe home. I had no choice but to send my child to live with their father in another country which has been absolutely heartbreaking for me and my child.”

She explained she has been forced to return to sex work but is doing so “under much worse conditions, without protection, and with constant fear”.

Iris added: “My life, my family, and my future have been torn apart for doing what I believed was right: helping other women, other single mothers, other sex workers survive.”

Megan Isaac, of sex worker-led collective SWARM, argued the proposals were “disastrous” as “shutting down adult services websites would force sex workers to work in brothels or on the street in order to support themselves, pushing them directly into the hands of potentially exploitative managers.”

Chiara Capraro, gender justice programme director at leading human rights organisation Amnesty International, urged MPs to make choices based on evidence and human rights and not back the proposals.

 She said: “There is plenty of evidence, mostly recently from Ireland, that criminalising clients and third parties does not make sex work safer nor reduces the numbers of women in sex work.

“The main driver of sex work is poverty. The most important action the government can take is to reduce poverty and over-policing. Many sex workers are mothers and disabled and continue to be greatly affected by the two-child limit cap on benefits, benefit sanctions and the upcoming cuts to PIP.

“The government should also expunge all criminal records for soliciting and brothel keeping and get rid of prostitute cautions which keep women in an endless cycle of criminalisation and poverty and make it hard, if not impossible, to leave sex work for women who want to do so.”

Antoniazzi and the government have been contacted by Novara Media for comment.

*Name changed to protect anonymity.