During the transition Britain remained subject to the bloc’s rules as a member of the single market and customs union.<\/span><\/p>\n But at 23:00 on Thursday, this ended and the UK and EU will now cooperate under a free trade deal.<\/span><\/p>\n Under EU law, period products including tampons were treated as a luxury rather than an essential item which meant they had 5 percent VAT.<\/span><\/p>\n Campaigners and activists had described the tampon tax as “sexist”.<\/span><\/p>\n We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.<\/p>\n The Government committed to axing the tampon tax in March’s budget and the change took effect on Friday after the UK left the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n A social media user tweeted: “The founder of Stop Taxing Periods has criticised the government for delivering their agenda due to ministers linking the issue to Brexit.<\/span><\/p>\n “She says it’s not true that Brexit enabled the change because the EU might one day change the relevant EU law anyway.”<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Neil replied to the tweet: “Any chance Oxford\/AstraZeneca could now develop a vaccine for Brexit Derangement Syndrome?”<\/span><\/p>\n Oxford University and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca teamed up to create a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus.<\/span><\/p>\n Social media users reacted to Mr Neil’s tweet with one user jokingly claiming there is already a new variant to “Brexit Derangement Syndrome”.<\/span><\/p>\n They wrote: “There’s already a new variant. Main symptoms: 1) to prattle endlessly about the new formalities required to export to EU (and to some extent NI)<\/span><\/p>\n “2) to predict the break-up of the U.K. 3) to ask inane questions about what we will do with our new-found freedoms.”<\/span><\/p>\n DON’T MISS French politician and Frexit campaigner, Charles-Henri Gallois, also commented on the UK’s axing of the tampon tax.<\/span><\/p>\n He tweeted: “It was one of the demands of the yellow vests: 0% VAT on essential products. Prohibited by the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n “The United Kingdom who has regained control does it!”<\/span><\/p>\n During Wednesday’s debate on Brexit, Sir Bernard Jenkin, Conservative chairman of the Commons Liaison Select Committee, said the UK could remove the tampon tax now it was leaving the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/Andrew-Neil-1378728.jpg?r=1609567216356\")
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John Redwood exposes BBC bias in fiery TV interview [UPDATE]
How long can I stay in Europe after Brexit? [INSIGHT]
We can thrive if only we stop panicking, says FREDERICK FORSYTH [COMMENT]<\/strong><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Rishi-Sunak-2831106.jpg?r=1609567221127\")
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