Food sold by pounds and ounces could come back after EU laws scrapped

Downing Street has confirmed a review which could see imperial weights and measures reintroduced in British shops will go ahead.

The government is looking at reversing the UK’s decision to join the European Union’s decades-long process of switching over to the uniform metric system.

Britain signed up to the policy in 1973 but it didn’t come into full effect until 2000, to some resistance.

Now a review of EU law could see retailers once again allowed to sell food in pounds and ounces.

The move was revealed yesterday after Brexit minister Lord Frost announced the government would take on ‘gloom-mongers’ by tearing up rules which were carried over after Brexit.

Now Downing Street has defended the review – but a spokesperson was unable to say which measures Boris Johnson uses himself.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: ‘Pounds and ounces are an easily understood and widely used unit of measurement.

‘This is one small part of a wide-ranging drive across government to establish the right regulatory environment to support jobs and growth across the UK.’

Downing Street was unable to confirm how long the review would take to return proposals.

Lord Frost said other post-Brexit changes introduced in the coming years could include the return of the crown stamp print on pint glasses, digital driving licences and new regulations around clinical trials.

He said the economy is ‘prospering vastly already under the arrangements that we are putting in place’.

Shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry reacted furiously, saying the country faces ‘continuing shortages of staff and supplies exacerbated by the Government’s Brexit deal, while businesses across the country face mounting loses in trade with Europe’.

She added people in Northern Ireland ‘remain stuck in limbo as the government refuses to implement the Brexit deal that they negotiated’.

Earlier this week, the government was forced to delay the introduction of new checks on goods entering the UK over fears it would lead to further supply disruption.

A combination of Brexit changes, the effects of the pandemic and a national HGV driver shortage have meant business across the economy have struggled to meet demand in recent months.

The Confederation of British Industry has warned problems could last for as long as two years.

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