RECESSION-HIT pubs are turning to strippers and lap dancers to pull in punters, anti-sex trade campaigners said last night.

And they warned loopholes in a planned Government licensing clampdown would make it even easier for venues to put on regular shows.

New laws being debated by Parliament will allow local councils the same powers over lap dancing clubs, at present treated as entertainment venues, as they now have over sex shops and cinemas.

But campaign groups are furious about an exemption for venues that host such shows less than once a month.

They warn it will lead to unregulated “stables” of girls being taken from venue to venue.

Object and The Fawcett Society, who are campaigning for even tougher new rules, said there were a growing number of agencies taking bookings from pubs, clubs and hotels.

They said: “This sub-market of the industry is likely to grow in the light of such an exemption.”

They also called on ministers to drop plans to give individual local authorities the choice of whether to take up the new “Sex Encounter Venue” licensing powers.