- Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party has formally applied to change name to Reform UK
- Party will be led by Farage and favours lockdown of only elderly and vulnerable
- Mr Farage and Richard Tice, the Brexit Party chairman, wrote a joint article
- Said the party will tackle ‘powerful vested interests’ including ‘law and order’
- But most pertinent issue is ‘the Government’s woeful response to coronavirus’
Nigel Farage is seeking to relaunch his political career by rebranding the Brexit Party as an anti-lockdown party.
The party has formally applied to the Electoral Commission to change its name to Reform UK and will campaign against coronavirus measures.
Announcing the party’s new aims, Mr Farage – who has led UKIP several times – and Richard Tice, the Brexit Party chairman, said it will tackle several ‘powerful vested interests’.
These include ‘the House of Lords, the BBC, the way we vote, law and order, immigration’. The pair also claim ‘badly run, wasteful quangos are in abundance’.
But the party – which hopes to capitalise on anti-lockdown sentiment – believes the most pertinent issue is ‘the Government’s woeful response to coronavirus’.
The announcement follows another day of Covid news yesterday in which:
- Some 23,254 cases were reported yesterday – 17.5 per cent more than the 19,790 cases seen last Sunday;
- A further 162 people died after testing positive for coronavirus in Britain yesterday, in the highest Sunday rise seen since May;
- Prince William revealed he was secretly diagnosed with coronavirus in April;
- Britain reeled after Boris Johnson announced a four-week lockdown on Saturday;
- New restrictions will see all pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops shut;
- People can only leave their homes for specific reasons, such as to do essential shopping, for outdoor exercise, and for work if they are unable to work from home;
- Former chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport said there was a ‘possibility’ the restrictions may need to stay in place for more than four weeks.