The Green Party has sparked an outcry over their demand to legalise prostitution. A party policy document said sex work involving consenting adults "should be decriminalised".

The proposals would make it legal for commercial properties to be turned into brothels. Local councils would license them to "protect" workers and clients, and help shield communities from "nuisance and abuse".

The document adds: "Wherever possible particular areas should be designated where street prostitutes can work in safety without upsetting local residents and traders."

Sex workers would be entitled to free regular health checks to "protect both them and their clients", while they would also be empowered to unionise.

The policy document, reported by the Daily Mail, also states that restrictions on pornography "should be ended" except for those protecting children.

But the plans have come under criticism from both the Conservatives and Reform UK.

A Tory spokesman said the Greens are continuing to demonstrate "why they are not a serious party of government" and that prostitution "leaves vulnerable women exposed to exploitation".

A spokesman from Reform added that voting for the Greens in Gorton and Denton in the upcoming by-election "is a vote for legalised prostitution, legalised crack cocaine and heroin, and open border chaos".

Green leader Zack Polanski has publicly backed the policy, insisting that it "puts the power in the workers' hands to create their own terms and conditions".

The Green candidate in Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, also said last year that she believes "sex work should not be criminalised".

Other controversial Green policies include decriminalising drugs and an ambition for open borders.

A Green Party spokesperson said: "Rather than criminalising people for choices they make about their own bodies, we will take the industry out of the hands of criminal gangs and ensure sex workers are properly protected."