Women treated worse than dogs claims Ash Regan after MSPs vote down prostitution bill

Her bill to introduce the Nordic model in Scotland fell by 54 votes to 64, despite six SNP backbenchers going against the government to back Ms Regan’s proposals.

Speaking after the vote, Ms Regan said: “I think in Scotland you have more protection if you’re a dog than if you’re a girl.

“I don’t think the government is planning to do anything about this, and we have to ask ourselves why are they protecting sex buyers?”

She also said it is “possible” the Scottish Government voted her bill down because they hold a grudge against her. Ms Regan resigned as the SNP’s community safety minister in 2022 over the government’s gender recognition reforms and later defected to the Alba Party.

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Ms Regan added: “It was very clear today from watching that debate that the Nordic model side won the argument decisively.

“The government is in complete disarray, they’re out of their depth, and they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

She added: “As a woman, if I wanted to choose a party to vote for, I don’t think my vote would be safe with the SNP.

“I actually quite ashamed of the conduct today in parliament, particularly of the members who gave misrepresented evidence and refused to meet with survivors.

“The community safety minister has shown her to be not up to the job of protecting women and girls in Scotland.”

She also accused the government of “manipulating the parliament” to make sure prostitution survivors’ voices were not heard, which she branded “shameful”.

The Nordic model would have criminalised the buying of sex while decriminalising the selling of sex, and introduced support to help women exit prostitution.

Six SNP backbenchers, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives all supported Ms Regan’s bill. However, the majority of SNP MSPs, the Scottish Greens, Scottish Lib Dems and Conservative MSP Edward Mountain voted the bill down.

Eleven MSPs did not vote, including Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.

However those who campaigned against the bill say the vote is a “huge win for our rights and dignity”.

Amelia, who describes herself as a Scottish sex worker, said: “I finally feel heard by the MSPs who voted against the bill.

“I hope we can continue fighting for resources that sex workers deserve, not ones that are decided for them.

“I’m relieved that me and my colleagues won't have to face more unsafe working conditions but the fight isn’t over yet.

“The current laws don’t protect us either, so we will be back in the parliament again soon.”

Laura Baillie, political officer for the campaign group Scotland for Decrim which supports the full decriminalisation of prostitution, added: “This is a huge win for the rights and dignity of sex workers.

“We know that this bill would have increased violence against women, while doing nothing to tackle the underlying reasons why people enter sex work - primarily poverty.”