Cabinet papers show how ministers wanted to make sure Margo MacDonald was on their side over new prostitution law in 2005

The popular Independent Lothian MSP was campaigning for councils to be allowed to create "tolerance zones" and had her own Bill going through Holyrood at the time.

Minutes of the Cabinet meeting on June 22, 2005, chaired by First Minister Jack McConnell, record ministers agreeing to oppose Ms MacDonald's Bill.

But a paper from Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson noted: "It will be important to try to ensure that Ms MacDonald is broadly supportive of the Executive's approach. This will be considered as part of a media plan to be developed by press and policy officials."

The Cabinet was discussing its response to an expert group on prostitution which had recently reported, proposing the scrapping of the existing law against soliciting by prostitutes and creating a new offence of causing nuisance or alarm, which would apply to both prostitutes and their clients but would only be triggered by a complaint. It also suggested councils could consider setting up "managed areas" where services could be offered to sex workers.

Ms Jamieson’s paper noted there was "little overt support" for tolerance zones and it came mainly from "Edinburgh-based interests".

The minutes say: "Ms Jamieson said the Executive's approach to prostitution should be firmly embedded within the ongoing work on tackling violence against women.

"In a wider context Ms Jamieson said local authorities had an existing responsibility to respond to public nuisance such as street prostitution and there were already examples of good practice.”

Ms MacDonald, who died in 2014, had been a member of the expert group, and described its recommendations as “realistic and pragmatic”, balancing “the duty of care for street sex workers with the duty of care towards the general community”.

The legislation put forward by the Scottish Executive largely followed the group’s proposals.

But the parliament’s local government committee demanded changes, which meant keeping the law against soliciting, targeted the new law at kerb-crawlers, removed the need for a nuisance complaint and abandoned the idea of managed zones.

Ms MacDonald voted against the Bill in 2007 and used her Evening News column that day to brand the new law cruel and misguided.

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