Rishi Sunak scraps return to imperial measures
Rishi Sunak has abandoned Boris Johnson’s signature Brexit “dividend” of allowing British shops to once again sell products in pounds and ounces.
In an announcement slipped out quietly over Christmas, the Department for Business and Trade said that ministers had dropped plans to bring back imperial measurements after 98.7 per cent of people opposed the move in a government consultation.
Instead they would make a far more limited change and allow the reintroduction of Winston Churchill’s favoured pint bottles of champagne, which were banned by the EU.
The use of imperial measurements has been one of the most emotive Brexit issues for decades, since the EU’s weights and measures directive introduced a requirement to use metric units for the sale of fresh produce.
Although it
