Tackle vile 'pimping websites' and rip up outdated prostitution laws, MPs demand

"Abhorrent" websites that allow women to be sold for sex must be shut down in the biggest shake-up of prostitution laws in generations, MPs have demanded.

Ministers face calls to outlaw so-called "pimping websites" and criminalise people - predominantly men - who pay for sex. Proposed legislation before Parliament would see jail terms of up to 10 years for anyone convicted of sexual exploitation, and prison or fines for those who buy sex.

MP Tonia Antoniazzi - who has put forward amendments to beef up the Government's new crime bill - warned that exploitation is happening on an "unimaginable" scale. She branded the brazen online trade "absolutely sick" and said customers are complicit in exploitation and abuse.

Her proposals, backed by more than 50 MPs, would also tear up prostitution offences, which campaigners say trap exploited women from escaping their abusers. Ms Antoniazzi told The Mirror: "The sex trafficking that goes on is on a scale that is unimaginable. We have to open people's eyes to this because it's just wrong." It comes more than a year after a damning probe by the cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee which found websites selling sex were responsible for a "flagrant facilitation of trafficking".

Ms Antoniazzi said: "It's abhorrent that it's happening. It's so brazen, they don't care, it's like they're untouchable. It's just been allowed to fester and grow and there's not been any regulation.

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"The coersion, the domestic violence, all of that that surrounds it, it's frightening, it's actually shocking that this is going on... All of that is morally wrong, it's criminal."

She accused the previous government of allowing pimping sites to grow by failing to act - saying she was "confident" Labour would finally tack action. "It's all about money and profiteering," she said.

"They're not thinking about the people. They're not thinking about the wellbeing of women and girls that are being exploited on their sites.

"I want to see the government be really strong. Just take these people out."

Ms Antoniazzi has put forward amendments to the Government's landmark Crime and Policing Bill, which is making its way through Parliament. The proposals would see those found paying for sex face up to six months in prison if their case is heard at a magistrates' court, or 10 years in a crown court.

She said it will shift the burden of criminal responsibility, adding: "All I get from my son's friends at university is kind of 'what's wrong with this, sex workers work?' Nobody, male or female, but particularly women, actually want to be in that position. We have to shift the burden of criminality off victims and onto perpetrators.

"Paying for sex is a form of violence against women and girls, exchanging money, services or anything like that is exploitation and abuse."

But she said existing laws are no help to women trying to escape from abusive pimps. "The men who are paying for sex, they should be taking responsibility, they're the criminal."

Her demands have been welcomed by campaigners. Kat Banyard, who leads UK Feminista’s work to combat commercial sexual exploitation, told The : “Our laws against sexual exploitation are not fit for purpose.

"Men who exploit women by paying for sex enjoy impunity, and this is driving demand for sex trafficking. At the same time, vulnerable women exploited through the sex trade can face criminal sanctions for soliciting, making it harder to seek help and rebuild their lives.

"Pouring gasoline on this situation is the emergence of pimping websites, which make it quick and easy for traffickers to advertise their victims to sex buyers across the country. Despite it being illegal to place a prostitution advert in a phone box, the same advert can be hosted online for profit."

She continued: "The Government doesn’t stand a chance of putting pimps and traffickers out of business without these changes. For too long, governments have looked the other way on this issue, leaving sex buyers and pimps free to exploit some of the most vulnerable women in our society. That must end, now.”

Ms Antoniazzi said she is confident Labour will act now its in Government. Current Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson headed the committee which probed online sex trafficking and previously voiced her fury at police "cozying up" to online pimps.

The committee's report called on the then-Tory government to review changing the law to criminalise those who pay for sex, and to act against those who profit from exploitation.

Ms Antoniazzi said: "I know this will be addressed, I would rather it be sooner rather than later, because the later it is the more women will continue to be exploited."

A Government spokeswoman said: "Any form of commercial sexual exploitation is completely abhorrent. As part of the Labour Government's forthcoming violence against women and girls strategy we will look to ensure the law is fit to protect women and girls from violence and exploitation."

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