MP Supports Campaign to Cut Demand for Prostitution

Denis MacShane, MP for Rotherham, has called for action to reduce the ever growing demand of men to have paid-for sex with under-age sex slaves imported into Britain by gangs of traffickers. The Rotherham MP and former Europe Minister told the Commons that unless men were made to accept their responsibility as the buyers of sex the chances of reducing the supply of sex slaves were zero.

He said that London was now Europe's capital for under-age trafficked sex slaves and until action was taken to curb the men buying sex, the appalling abuse of girl sex slaves would continue. He said that women ministers were sympathetic to the campaign but the 'lads' in the cabinet had to be persuaded.

Last year MacShane led the campaign to get Britain to sign up to the European Convention aimed at limiting trafficking. But now he says, the position is even worse. 'There are an estimated 25,000 girls, many of them under the age of 18, trafficked into Britain to meet the demand for men to have sex in exchange for money. Up to now, it has been the women who are treated as criminals. Women become double victims. They are beaten up  and raped as preparation for working in massage parlours and other modern brothels, or they become victims of pimps in order to earn money to pay for drugs or escape financial debt. Then when the police take some action, it is usually the women who get arrested and the men whose money helps prostitution flourish are never challenged, let alone named and shamed.

'I think we have to turn the debate on its head. It is men who should be prosecuted for paying for sex. Paying for sex with a girl under 18 is technically rape. But there has not been one successful prosecution of a man for such rape. The pimps and traffickers are laughing all the way to their offshore bank accounts. It is by tackling the demand and making paid-for sex a crime that we can begin to reduce supply.'

MacShane is working with other MPs to seek an amendment to the criminal justice act currently being debated in parliament to make paying for sex a crime. Such measures have dramatically cut trafficking and prostitution in other countries like Sweden.

In an exchange in the Commons last week, the women's minister Harriet Harman, supported MacShane's call to cut demand and said she would seek to ban media advertising for trafficked women.

Mr. Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): There are 25,000 sex slaves operating in Britain, while brothels and massage parlours are growing in importance. It is a huge industry. Young women of only 12, 14, 16— [Interruption.] I see Conservative Members sniggering about this; they should stop it. Young women of those ages are being beaten up and forced to act as sex slaves. It is more a matter of demand than supply, which we cannot do much about. I have a quote from a 12-year-old from the Balkans, in the current issue of Now magazine who was beaten up:

“I remember vividly the first time I was with a customer. . . He was in his late sixties and smelt awful. As he crouched over me, his hands groping my body, I felt sick, but there was a guard standing outside the room, so I couldn’t escape.”

That is happening in 21st century Britain, and unless we curb demand and make men accept their responsibility for the cruelties they impose on women, it will get a lot worse. We need an urgent debate. Britain must rid itself of this foul and evil trade.

Ms Harman: I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend’s work in this area. This modern-day slavery is a new and evil trade that is emerging in this country, which is one reason why we need to work closely with our European partners. This vile trade is not only going on as my right hon. Friend describes, but is being advertised on the back pages of local newspapers—even local family newspapers—which read, “new girls in every week”, “new girls from eastern Europe, from Africa, from south-east Asia” and so forth. That is advertising slavery and I will meet the Newspaper Society next week to discuss how it can play a part in curbing this evil trade.

MacShane added that he had spoken to women ministers who supported his campaign. 'Now it is up to the lads in the cabinet to take up his issue. Britain is fast becoming the capital for under-age trafficked sex-slaves. The occasional raid and court case that sends pimps and traffickers to prison has no impact on demand. Only by making it illegal to pay for sex rather than the supply side with incoherent, jumbled up policy which neither stops sex slave trafficking nor discourages the punters whose ever-increasing demand (especially amongst in the lad culture) makes it all so profitable

'The argument will provoke a big debate from the so-called sex-workers' advocates. But the evidence from Nevada to the Netherlands where they have tried to legislate and regulate brothels is that legalisation just create a new group of women forced by drug addiction, poverty and male violence into prostitution. We have the new  wave of Happy Hooker books but the ugly truth is that this is an ugly, violent, degrading industry. Just ask if you would want your daughter to become a massage parlour worker. Yes, it is anti-libertarian. Yes, it is about controlling behaviour. But it is also about making men accept their responsibilities rather than victimising the women as happens at the moment.'