Latest editorial
THE TAX on tampons will be raised with the European Commission after MPs voted yesterday to make women continue to pay VAT on them, a Treasury minister said.
David Gauke said the government sympathised with the campaign to scrap or reduce the 5 per cent tax rate on sanitary products but that Britain was unable to act alone.
MPs rejected a proposed amendment to the Finance Bill, which would have made tampons and sanitary towels exempt from VAT by next April, by 305 votes to 287.
As peers prepare to debate reform of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi leads a bid to end the criminalisation of women who end pregnancies at home. LYNNE WALSH reports
Where normally only the US and its ally Israel vote to strangle Cuba economically, there have been special efforts to slander and isolate the besieged socialist island nation year — so we must redouble our solidarity, writes TARIQ ANDERSON
