Keith Vaz: 'Belle du Jour' blogger Dr Brooke Magnanti criticises anti-sex work campaigners for 'twisting story'

'Keith Vaz’s sex life does not matter'

Dr Brooke Magnanti gives evidence on prostitution to the Home Affairs select committee at Portcullis House (PA)

'Belle du Jour' blogger Dr Brooke Magnanti has criticised calls for a Home Affairs committee recommendation for the decriminalisation of sex work to be "discounted" following newspaper allegations Keith Vaz paid for sex.

Dr Magnanti was called to give evidence before the Home Affairs committee chaired by Mr Vaz on prostitution and the sex industry in May this year.

Mr Vaz announced his decision to step down from the committee today. The Labour MP said in a statement: “Those who hold others to account must themselves be accountable.”

Between 2003 and 2004, Dr Magnanti wrote about being an escort in London while studying for a PhD under the pseudonym Belle du Jour.

Dr Magnanti was called to give evidence alongside the journalist Paris Lees, a former sex worker, despite both women having retired from sex work years before. They advocated the decriminalisation of the industry and Dr Magnanti warned MPs criminalising the payment for sex would make women more scared to come forward with abuse. She told MPs: "If you criminalise buying sex, the prostitute knows she becomes the evidence."

In the UK, selling and paying for sex is legal but soliciting in a public place, managing brothels and kerb-crawling is a crime. In Sweden, buying sex is illegal but selling it is legal. The ‘Swedish model’ has been considered after Sweden reported lower rates of prostitution in the country since the model was introduced.

In an essay for Medium, “Keith Vaz’s sex life does not matter”, Dr Magnanti criticised supporters of the Swedish model for putting the focus of stories around Mr Vaz in light of the Home Affairs select committee, writing: "If you think Keith Vaz is singlehandedly responsible for sex workers being treated like human beings, you are very stupid, stop writing now.

“When I called out the committee for visiting Sweden and Denmark without meeting local sex worker-led orgs, Keith Vaz had the audacity to claim that they had. I know he was wrong; sex work organisations were shut out of the consultation visits. Why? Because Vaz has been a vocal supporter of the Swedish model. Now people are trying to imply Vaz gave us a helping hand in the results? As if.

“People twisting the Vaz story to suit their agenda are the lowest of the low, and their preferred policy kills women."

She added: “Sex workers influenced the outcome of the prostitution inquiry in spite of, not because of, Keith Vaz.”

Dr Magnanti's award-winning blog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl was praised for its candid, unflinching portrayal of sex work and was followed by six books and a TV series based on her entries. She revealed her true identity in 2009 after a tabloid discovered her real name and address.