Ash Regan’s Prostitution Bill is drawing some strange opposition - Susan Dalgety

A UN expert has backed a bid by Alba MSP Ash Regan to criminalise those buying sex at the same time as decriminalising those selling it. Pictute: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Last week she took to X (formerly Twitter) to chastise them and she didn’t mince her words. “…Voters are sick of politicians with no life experience virtue signalling…while wholly failing to meaningfully address everyday issues…”

She was referring to Emma Roddick, an SNP MSP well known for her large collection of campaign lanyards and fashionable causes, but she could just as well have been talking about any number of politicians, from backbenchers to government ministers.

Take Siobhian Brown for example. She is Scotland’s Community Safety minister, a role once held by Edinburgh Eastern MSP Ash Regan, before she resigned in protest at the SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

Ash Regan is steering a private member’s bill through Holyrood, which if passed would criminalise the buying of sex. This approach to prostitution is called the Nordic Model, which the Scottish Government largely supports, so the average voter would expect Siobhian Brown to back her erstwhile colleague’s bill.

But in a letter to the parliament’s criminal justice committee, the minister has expressed deep misgivings. She wrote, “There remain significant questions and concerns regarding the measures within the Bill and how they would work in practice, the extent to which they would deliver on the policy intent…”

A more cynical observer might suggest that Brown’s objection to Ash Regan’s bill is more about internal party politics than effective lawmaking. After all, Regan left the SNP and is now a member of ALBA – but I wouldn’t dream of making that connection.

But if Siobhian Brown’s concerns are genuine, and not just sour grapes, then that begs the question about her government’s previous support for the Nordic Model. Was that just another case of virtual signalling?

Talking of which, Chris Murray, the Labour MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, was the only Scottish MP to sign a letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last week, accusing the organisation of causing “distress and confusion” among people who identify as transgender.

The letter, drafted by another MP, one Tony Vaughan, is a response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that, in the 2010 Equality Act, sex means biological sex. It seems that Murray and the other signatories think this is harmful.

Clearly Chris Murray forget to check the Labour Party’s official position before adding his name to the letter. The party’s manifesto, published in advance of last year’s general election when Murray was elected, states Labour is “proud of our Equality Act and the rights and protections it affords women; we will continue to support the implementation of its single-sex exceptions.”

Chris Murray is a young politician, full of enthusiasm for his new job, but I hope he learns quickly that real life is not the same as student politics.

He could start by reaching out to his geographical colleague, Ash Regan, and offering to support her campaign to end the purchase of sex and the exploitation of women.

It would be more challenging than signing a round robin letter, but it would be an act of political courage.