Andrew Boff is not the favourite to become the Conservative Party’s candidate to succeed Boris Johnson as London mayor but he’s enlivening the contest for the job. Before the start of last week’s first hustings of the race, organised by the Centre for London think tank and Propect magazine and held in the grand surroundings of the Institute of Directors HQ in Pall Mall, a show of audience hands revealed that no one present planned to vote for him, the only one of the four contenders with a beard and no tie.

By the end, Boff, the current leader of the Conservative group on the London Assembly whose mayoral programme would include giving away bits of public land to people who want to build their own homes, imposing a maximum height of six storeys on new residential buildings except in five defined areas and working with other cities on de-criminalising cannabis possession, had persuaded a healthy minority that he was their man. He’d gained more support on the night than any of his three rivals, Zac Goldsmith, Stephen Greenhalgh and Syed Kamall.



His latest policy announcement may or may not further improve his chances but it should generate discussion. If he becomes mayor next May, Boff would seek to set up and trial what he calls “a managed area of street prostitution” somewhere in east London, depending on negotiations with boroughs in that part of town. The pilot scheme would test his view that the approach he has in mind would better protect street sex workers - whom Boff describes as “some of the most vulnerable people in our community” - against harm, help confine their activities to specific areas, and allow the police to spend less time enforcing soliciting and kerb-crawling legislation, which, in Boff’s view, has counter-productive long-term effects.

“Police action against street sex workers is often temporary and risks pushing them into more dangerous environments,” he says and argues that, by contrast, his “managed area” would encourage the reporting of dangerous individuals to the police as well as ensuring that “those working in street prostitution have better access to health and social care support”, such as that provided by Homerton Hospital’s Open Doors service. He also thinks such measures would make it easier for women to leave the sex trade.

Boff contends that “street sex work is a London-wide issue” and should therefore be addressed by a “comprehensive strategy” from City Hall to prevent what he detects as a tendency for boroughs to try to move the problem on to neighbours’ territories. He cites a scheme introduced in Leeds a year ago as a model for his idea. Despite some criticism from local business people, this has been hailed as a success by the city’s council, academics and police and is reported to be likely to continue.

Firmly on the libertarian wing of his party, Boff has produced reports on human trafficking and what the Met can do within current legal constraints to lessen violence against female sex workers. He is well aware that the debate around all prostitution is fiercely polarised, with some campaigning for combinations of decrimalisation and legitimisation as the best way to address safety, health and personal liberty issues and others fighting just as hard to reduce demand by criminalising the purchasing of sex rather than the selling of it. He is eager to know Guardian readers’ views.

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