Soliciting sex should not be crime, according to a former Tolworth sex worker and Kingston MP James Berry.

A group of MPs has called for immediate radical changes in the way prostitution is policed.

The Home Affairs Select Committee, on which Mr Berry sits, recommended the changes as a way to minimise the risk for women selling sex.

After hearing evidence from sex workers, experts and police, the cross-party group of MPs also said previous convictions for prostitution should be wiped from criminal records.

They advised a change in brothel-keeping laws to promote a safer environment for women working together.

While buying or selling sex is legal, advertising in public – soliciting – is not, nor are brothels. Campaigners claim this puts women at risk.

Former sex worker Jenny Medcalf, 47, now works as a support and outreach officer for Streatham-based charity Spires.

She supports the women who sell sex on the streets of south London by offering them condoms and advice, as well as attending court appearances.

She said: “These women are not Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. They are chaotic, they live chaotic lives.

“About 95 per cent of the women I see have a drug problem. I definitely support the move to decriminalise.

“When street workers get picked up they get a caution or arrested and then they have to appear in court.

“Because their lives are so chaotic they miss the appearance and then they get fined. And how are they going to get the money? They are going to sell sex. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Politicians suggested a move to the Nordic model, which means kerb-crawlers looking for sex would be still charged with a crime, but not prostitutes offering sex.

But Ms Medcalf said: “The problem is if the men are committing crime they will want to rush the transactions and move somewhere out of the way.

“That is something that puts women at risk.” She believes safety lies in full legalisation.

Ms Medcalf was working as a human resources consultant in the City when she fell behind on mortgage payments for her Tolworth home, and got into debt.

In 2004 she followed a suggestion that she sell sex to supplement her income, and became an escort offering a BDSM—bondage and discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism—service.

After turning to drugs and alcohol to cope, Ms Medcalf said she finally had to leave the job when a client was whipping her through the bars of a cage and she broke down.

The Durham University zoology graduate wanted to stress that “sex workers take many different forms”.

She said: “There are definitely women out there who make a choice to work in the sex trade.

“They are drawn to the flexible hours, they make their money, they pay their taxes and they run it like a business. That is who I thought I was, but I was wrong.”

Mr Berry said: “All the evidence we heard was that sections of the current law were doing nothing more than putting women at risk.

“People on both sides of the argument agreed that.”

But he did not agree that the laws on kerb crawling for sex should necessarily be changed.

He said: “There are a number of issues surrounding street prostitution.

“The current laws on curb crawling are probably a good deterrent.”

Spires runs three workshops a week for sex workers. Call 020 8696 0943 or visit spires.org.uk.