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Join our campaign to end the taxation of sanitary products:
a good our government considers to be a 'luxury'
What they said...
PM David Cameron
Prime Minister of the UK and Leader of the Conservative Party
Live on BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat:
Cameron explained: "I wish we could get rid of [tampon tax]… There’s a problem with getting rid of VAT on certain individual issues because of the way this tax is regulated and set in Europe.”
Although he claims to find the situation “frustrating” and said he would “like to” get rid of the tax, we have yet to see him act.
April 2015
MP Nicola Sturgeon
Leader of the Scottish National Party
Page 23, SNP manifesto:
We are determined to ensure a fairer deal for women, not only in the work place. That’s why we’ll address a longstanding failure in our tax system by demanding that VAT on sanitary products is removed. Sanitary products are a necessity, not a luxury, and should not be taxed."
2015
DJ Chris Moyles
Radio X Host
In an interview with free music NME magazine:
"S**t, maybe I'm a feminist... Why do women have to pay for sanitary products? That's crazy. That would never happen if it was the other way around!""
2015
MP Tim Farron
Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party
Personal Letter to Laura Coryton:
"I am very happy to lend my support to the stop taxing periods campaign. It is clearly a ludicrous situation which is charging half the population for the basic necessaries of life."
2015
MP Ed Miliband
Previous Leader of the Labour Party
Live on BBC4's Woman's Hour:
Miliband explained: "“We reduced it to 5%; I’d like to go further. I can’t promise I will go further because there are these rules in place, but I will keep trying, because it seems to me a ridiculous that you have VAT at all on this,”
2015
Cariad Lloyd
Comedian, Have I Got News For You
Youtube video:
Together with fellow comedian Jenny Bede, Cariad created an amazing Taylor Swift parady to support our campaign. Check it out by clicking her photo (right)!
In her video she demands George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to "“scrap the tax - whyd'ya think your box is red?”"
2015
Nigel Farage
Leader of the United Kingdom's Independence Party (UKIP)
UKIP's manifesto 2015:
Farage described the tax as one paid simply "for being a woman". Although he pledged to end sanitary tax, he also ignored the scope of this issue, stretching across all corners of the world, and the importance of solidarity. Hijacking this issue to further his interests in leaving the EU sadly transended his interest in truly supporting the end of sanitary tax and the subsequent marginalisation of women.
2015
MP Caroline Lucas
Previous Leader of the Green Party
Webchat with 'Empowering Women':
“ It’s madness that tampons are taxed at 5% and flapjacks, for example, at 0%. It’s our policy to scrap the tampon tax, and you can bet your life that if there were more women MPs it would have happened a long time ago!,”
2015
Caroline Criado-Perez
Journalist and Feminist Activist, Keep A Women On Our Banknotes
'The Telegraph' article, If I Were Prime Minister:
“I would also abolish VAT on sanitary products. A product that soaks up the blood and womb cells our bodies shed once a month is not a luxury, it is a necessity.”
2015
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