Sex workers have made a direct appeal to John Swinney calling him not to support Ash Regan's bid to outlaw buying sex in Scotland amid a split among SNP MSPs over the legislation.
The First Minister said last week that the Scottish Government was "still considering" its position on Ms Regan's bill ahead of a key parliamentary vote on it Tuesday.
Ms Regan introduced the Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill last year, proposing to introduce what is known as the Nordic Model, making it illegal for a person to buy sex in all circumstances, while also repealing solicitation offences for those selling sex.
Buyers could face prison time or a fine of up to £10,000, under the proposals.
SNP MSPs are divided on the matter with four party members on Holyrood's criminal justice committee - Audrey Nicoll, Fulton McGregor, Rona Mackay and Jamie Hepburn - saying they were opposed to the bill because evidence it could harm women “cannot be ignored”, and because there was not enough time left in the parliamentary session to make necessary changes.
But four members of the justice committee - Labour's Katy Clark and Pauline McNeill, the Conservatives' Sharon Dowey and Lib Dem Liam Kerr- backed the legislation moving to the next parliamentary stage.
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After the criminal justice committee published its report Ms Regan, a former SNP minister, who is now an independent MSP, launched a ferocious attack on her former party colleagues who opposed her bill accusing them of "siding with grooming gangs, pimps, sex traffickers and sex buyers”.
Three SNP MSPs have already said they would support the bill. Both Michelle Thomson and Annabelle Ewing said on social media they would vote in favour of Ms Regan's legislation at Stage 1 next week, while Ruth Maguire revealed last year she would support it.
Ms Thomson wrote on X last week: "It is my intention to vote for this Bill at Stage 1. It’s not perfect: but my principled stance is that the sex class ‘women’ should not be legally bought as commodities and raped for money."
Ms Ewing agreed and posting her reply to Ms Thomson, she wrote: "Well said Michelle Thomson. I will be joining you. It is beyond time to now act."
With the matter coming to a Stage 1 vote in parliament on Tuesday, sex workers have written to Mr Swinney urging him not to back the "dangerous" legislation.
"We write to you as the people who will be most affected by Ash Regan’s bill to criminalise the purchase of sex, to plead with you not to vote for this dangerous proposed legislation at the Stage 1 vote on February 3," said the letter organised by Scotland for Decrim, which campaigns for the full decriminalisation of sex work.
"Our most urgent concern in all of this is our safety. There is significant evidence from Amnesty International, the World Health Organisation, and the vast majority of academic research in the area that criminalising the purchase of sex makes it much harder for women to work safely.
"If a client is concerned that they will be arrested, they will be far less likely to give sex workers identifying information - which is a crucial part of keeping us safe."
The letter said if this bill were to pass women selling sex would face more violence and pointed out that in "every country" where similar legislation has been implemented, violence against women selling sex "has drastically increased".
They added: "In Northern Ireland, rates of violence rose by a horrifying 225%. We must not implement this failed legislative model in Scotland."
The letter said the bill does not address "one of the most dangerous parts of our work" where it is illegal to work in the same indoor location as another sex worker.
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"This means we have to work alone, without the safety of our friends there if a client becomes threatening. It’s scandalous that current laws force sex workers to work in more dangerous conditions, and outrageous that this bill would maintain this law," the sex workers told the First Minister.
They took issue with claims made by Ms Regan that her bill was driven by feminist concerns and that those who did not support it were siding with "grooming gangs" and pimps exploiting women.
"The majority of people who sell sex are women. It is far from “anti-women” to want sex workers to experience less violence, to have safer working conditions, and for them to be able to access support more easily," they said.
"As a group made up largely of women, and with all of our members being feminists, it is shocking and offensive to see our concerns dismissed in this way, when we are the ones who will face the devastating repercussions of this bill.
"We have the same concerns as any other women. One of the leading reasons why women enter sex work is poverty. We need to pay our rent. We need to pay our bills. We need to buy food. We need to support our families. By making our work less safe, and making it harder to advocate for our own rights, we are pushed further into the conditions that brought us to sex work in the first place. This bill does nothing to support us and everything to harm us.
"The bill must fall. There is nothing about it that can be changed at later stages that would minimise the harm it will do to sex workers. You cannot amend a bill that will inevitably increase violence against women."
Speaking to LBC, Ms Regan, said earlier this month it was “staggering” that the four SNP members of the criminal justice committee did not support her bill.
“Why are the SNP siding with grooming gangs, pimps, sex traffickers and sex buyers? Who are they trying to protect? Because it is certainly not women and girls.”
Ms Regan said the introduction of the Nordic model had reduced homicides in countries where it had been introduced.
A statement by her office to The Herald said: "Sweden’s Nordic Model shows zero prostitution-linked homicides over 20+ years while achieving world-leading public health outcomes.
"Countries with full decriminalisation/legalisation report higher homicide rates of people in prostitution, raising questions about the claim that full decriminalisation improves safety.
"Reducing demand while providing exit and support services appears to be the most effective model for both safety and health."
Ms Regan said: “Evidence shows that real safety for women comes from challenging demand, not normalising exploitation.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Government is now considering the Criminal Justice Committee’s Stage 1 Report on the Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill.
"As we have outlined in evidence to the Committee, while we strongly support the principle of legislating to criminalise purchasers of sex, we have significant concerns with the Bill as currently drafted and the time left in this parliamentary session to address these. These are concerns that the Committee has also noted.”
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