The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to allow Britain to continue using imperial measurements including the pint and the mile.

The decision overturns a 2009 deadline which called on British sellers to convert ounces, pints and miles to grams, half-litres and kilometres.

Minister for Europe Caroline Flint called the vote "a victory for common sense," noting forcing manufacturers and sellers to change their labelling during the economic downturn would have been difficult.

EU sellers outside of Britain converted to the metric system in 1995 but British trade and consumer groups rallied to keep the imperial measurements.

Canada converted to the metric system in 1970.