Internet helped create pressure to end tampon tax, says lead campaigner

Laura Coryton was recognised for her services to charitable campaigning by being made an MBE at Windsor Castle.
Ms Coryton was made an MBE at Windsor Castle for her campaigning efforts (Ben Birchall/PA)
PA Wire
Harry Stedman9 April 2024

The lead campaigner who ended the UK tampon tax has said the internet helped bring more people together to create pressure for its removal.

Laura Coryton, founder of Stop Taxing Periods, was recognised for her services to charitable campaigning by being made an MBE at Windsor Castle.

Speaking to the PA news agency, the 30-year-old said she was proud of her role in the campaign and that it was “the highlight of my life so far”.

She said: “There’s so many campaigns before mine that were talking about tampon tax, trying to get it axed, but it wasn’t really until we could utilise the internet that we could create this.

“For example, I’m from Devon (and) one of my friends from home, his mum came and spoke to me and she said, ‘You know, I support your campaign, I think it’s really great because I used to campaign for this when I was your age.’

“And, you know, you can ignore one person in Devon, but you can’t ignore 320,000 people that sign this online petition.

“So yeah, it’s just such a privilege to be able to facilitate that. And then finally get it over the line.”

It was announced in January that consumers would no longer pay VAT on “essential and environmentally-friendly” period pants, following a separate two-year campaign.

Ms Coryton said campaigning on tampon tax had “definitely” helped to pave the way for further change, but insisted that more could still be done for women trying to access menstrual products.

She said: “I’d like to see period products be free in public spaces – Scotland’s done that.

“Even if you go to a really rural loch in Scotland you’ll find free period products in bathrooms, and yet in inner city London we don’t see them.

“Period products are just as essential as toilet paper.”

Ms Coryton added her social enterprise Sex Ed Matters had received a grant from the Government to develop a new artificial intelligence tool for schools and universities from September, which will help students and teachers understand the challenges around safeguarding consent.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in