// The BRC has warned that Boris Johnson’s plan to reintroduce the imperial measurement will drive up supermarket prices

// The trade body, which represents Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda, said grocers would have to relabel all their products, which would raise costs

Supermarkets have warned that Boris Johnson’s plan to bring back imperial measurements could drive up inflation and exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis.

The British Retail Consortium, which represents supermarkets including Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, said reintroducing pounds and ounces would increase grocers’ costs as they would need to update product labels.

BRC assistant director of food Andrea Martinez-Inchausti said: “Supermarkets are focusing on delivering the best value for their customers in the face of intense inflationary pressures. 

“Introducing new laws to change the way we measure food and drink would both distract from this vital task, and add cost and complexity if existing products are required to be relabelled.” 

READ MORE: Asda criticises government for being too slow to react to inflation

The BRC pointed out that manufacturers and retailers are already free to list imperial measures alongside metric ones.

Business department BEIS is to launch a 12-week consultation on Friday with business groups and consumers to ask whether retailers should be able to sell goods in pounds and ounces rather than metric measurements.

Johnson is thought to have wanted to unveil plans to go back to pounds and ounces to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The move has been embraced by some pro-Brexit politicians as a benefit of leaving the EU, however, some political commentators have accused the prime minister of using the policy to distract from ‘partygate’.

The UK formally introduced the metric system in 1965, although there are some exemptions to the systems with beer, cider and milk still sold in pint measures.

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