Boris Johnson has been urged to pardon Britain’s last “Brexit criminals” as campaigners warn of a “burning injustice” facing people who were prosecuted under EU metrification laws. The Telegraph's Chief Political Correspondent Christopher Hope investigates the cases of the Metric Martyrs.

Georgia Thoburn, the daughter of the so-called ‘Metric Martyr’ Steve Thoburn, has spoken for the first time about her dad’s conviction.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Georgia said her dad’s prosecution is “unfinished business” resulting from Britain’s membership of the European Union and urged ministers to clear Steve Thoburn’s name: “It’s the final push.

“We’ve come out of the EU; now I think we’re really ready for it all just to be finalised.

“It’s been going on far too long and my dad doesn’t really need that conviction against his name, does he?”

Thoburn, who died in 2004, became the first of five ‘martyrs’ to be prosecuted under EU laws adopted in Britain which meant market traders had to use metric units in their shops.

In 2001, the Sunderland greengrocer was found guilty under the Weights and Measures Act 1985, after an undercover consumer protection officer caught Thoburn weighing bananas in imperial units rather than metric measurements.

Neil Herron, who has campaigned for the convicted market traders for two decades, said Thoburn’s case may have helped lead to the Brexit vote in 2016: “This was the first time that the British public was able to touch and feel something that had come from the EU.

“This was an ordinary, working class man of the people who was fighting up for everybody.

“This was us against the system, us against bureaucracy and it was a fight that was always going to be won in the hearts of the people.”

The renewed calls for the martyrs' to be pardoned come as ministers consider proposals to bring back the legal right to use solely imperial measurements in shops.

A recent report by the government’s Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR) urged Boris Johnson to scrap the Weights and Measures Act 1985, which forces businesses to use metric and imperial units in equal prominence.

The prime minister said he is examining the report’s recommendations, which also include scrapping the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and investing in research for genetically modified food.

The taskforce was set up to find ways to take advantage of Britain’s new post-Brexit freedoms.

Janet Devers, who was prosecuted in 2008 by Hackney council for failing to use metric units in her market stall, said the authorities made her life a “misery”.

She continued: “Everybody was behind me at the time… Letters, donations and everything.

“If I can get my pardon I will be very happy, but it’s taken a long time.”

Devers’ brother, Colin Hunt, was also convicted by Hackney Council seven years earlier under new metrification laws.

Hunt told The Telegraph: “At the time this was going on Tony Blair was prime minister and he just had a baby and he said: “oh my baby weighs nine pounds!””

“I mean it’s totally ridiculous.”


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