How Tampon Tax nearly derailed Boris Johnson’s Brexit
BORIS Johnson’s Brexit deal was nearly derailed at the 11th hour by the Tampon Tax.
The PM's team and EU negotiators were forced to work through the night to thrash out an agreement and were only finished minutes before the deal was announced.
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But a breakthrough came after Brussels granted a dispensation allowing the UK to set different VAT rates in Northern Ireland and Great Britain on sanitary products.
The Tampon Tax, under EU law, currently forces British women to pay 5 per cent VAT on sanitary products.
Campaigners have warned the charge makes it harder for women to afford sanitary protection, leading to "period poverty".
More than 320,000 signed a petition calling on the government to scrap the tax in 2015.
In August 2017 Tesco became the first British supermarket to effectively scrap the Tampon Tax by covering the 5 per cent VAT itself.
It was something that had to be resolved overnight and was settled this morning, it is important that we were able to take that decision.
UK official
No10 has long planned to scrap the tax but was prevented by Brussels from making the move.
But the government stood firm on the issue during negotiations after Mr Johnson had ordered his team not to scrap one of the key pledges of the 2016 Vote Leave Campaign, reports.
One of the PM’s advisers said: “It was totemic to the referendum campaign.
“The PM told the whole team, 'We have to sort the tampon tax.'"
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To ensure they could ditch the tax, negotiators had to decide if they could allow tampons travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland to benefit from a new lower rate under the Brexit agreement.
It is believed discussions went on throughout the night, until 9am on Thursday.
A UK official told : “It was something that had to be resolved overnight and was settled this morning, it is important that we were able to take that decision.”
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