Coleen Nolan calls for prostitution to be legalised to prevent violence

Nolan, 50, said people need to stop pretending that keeping prostitution illegal will result in it disappearing.

Writing for her Agony Aunt column in the Daily Mirror she said:

“Prostitution is an age-old-problem - it’s never going to go away, and we need to do something to make it safer, rather than pretend outlawing it is going to end it. To me, legalising prostitution will make selling sex safer for all concerned.”

The Loose Women panellist continued: “It will stop young girls being forced into it, women risking their lives on street corners, pimps taking their earnings and even  to some extent drug addiction, sexually transmitted diseases and violence, because if sex workers don’t pass the health checks, they won’t be allowed to work and violent punters will face criminal prosecution".

“I agree that it is a very difficult subject, but I can’t agree that no control is the best way forward.”

The mother-of-three revealed in 2005 that she would pay for her son Shane Jr., who was then 17, to go to Amsterdam.

Speaking at the time she said: “If I’m pushed, I’d rather he does it somewhere well-policed and where the girls have health checks than behind the wall of a club in Ibiza with no safeguards.”