REUTERS/GETTY George Osborne's deal of a tampon tax has been dropped by the EU, a Tory MP claims

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Brussels’ PR machine went into overdrive after fears emerged that bureaucrats were attempting to quietly drop a commitment to end taxation on sanitary products, which would have been a huge embarrassment to the Chancellor. Tory backbencher John Redwood raised concerns that the measure was being shelved after the Brussels elite failed to include it in their latest VAT reform proposals, sparking a furious response. As anger mounted today the EU put out a statement clarifying its position and insisting that it will bring forward new laws allowing member states to scrap VAT on tampons.

However, the vaguely worded pledge promised only to bring in measures “this year” - meaning that for now women continue to pay a mandatory 5% tax rate on sanitary products. Tweeting in response to the Express.co.uk story today, EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said: “I’ve confirmed to George Osborne that the EU Commission plans to make proposals this year for more flexibility on VAT for sanitary products.” His denial came after the European Council of Finance Ministers (ECOFIN), of which Mr Osborne is a member, rushed out a statement late last night calling upon Jean-Claude Juncker’s EU Commission to draw up "a legislative proposal foreseeing an option to Member States of VAT reduced or zero rating for women's sanitary products at the earliest opportunity".

REUTERS The Chancellor bragged that the agreement showed EU reform can work

GETTY Campaigners were furious at the levy of the tax, which was imposed by the EU

There is absolutely no right for this Parliament to do what it clearly wishes to do by overwhelming majority on the issue of the tampon tax John Redwood MP

The tampon tax debacle has been a huge embarrassment for both Brussels and the Government and has further fuelled the claims of Brexit campaigners that it is ludicrous having Britain’s taxation policies dictated by unelected, foreign bureaucrats. It erupted again this week when Express.co.uk reported a speech by Mr Redwood, a former minister under John Major and the MP for Wokingham in Berkshire, who raised fears in Parliament on Monday that Brussels appeared to have dismissed the Government's pleas amid plans to impose one taxation rate across the 28-nation bloc. The long-standing Eurosceptic quoted a document released by the EU Commission after Mr Osborne said he had secured the tampon tax reform which made no mention of the agreement, but which did call for a single rate of VAT across the EU. He told the House of Commons: "The sadness of the document is that it shows that there is no political agreement whatsoever in the European Union to give back to us the right to impose the taxes that people should pay and that they might accept. "There is absolutely no right for this Parliament to do what it clearly wishes to do by overwhelming majority on the issue of the tampon tax."

During a rousing speech, Mr Redwood revealed the “only two things” in the EU document was more centralisation of Britain’s VAT system to boost Brussels coffers, and a wishy-washy statement there could be more flexibility in the future. But that was “extremely unlikely” as the European Parliament and all member states would have to agree. The Eurosceptic also said Britain had been ignored in its opposition to a tax hike on green products from five per cent to 20 per cent. Even though Brussels has now clarified its position on the tax, Eurosceptics have blasted the delay in bringing forward the measure as further evidence that the EU is fundamentally unreformable.