Brexit Party re-branding as anti-lockdown party Reform UK
The party says the "single most pressing issue" is the government's "woeful response" to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sunday 1 November 2020 23:26, UK
The Brexit Party has applied to change its name to Reform UK, admitting it is "time to re-direct our energies".
When the Brexit Party held its policy launch ahead of last year's general election, leader Nigel Farage said the organisation would most likely never be in power but could be the driving force behind getting governments to "support the little people".
In a piece written for The Daily Telegraph, the party said it would continue to keep a "close eye" on Brexit but would focus more strongly on the institutions and policies that require change.
The party listed the House of Lords, the BBC, the voting process, law and order, and immigration, criticising "badly run, wasteful quangos" and describing the Home Office as "not fit for purpose".
But the "single most pressing issue", it said, was the government's "woeful response" to the coronavirus pandemic.
"The 'strategy' has been to terrify the nation into submission, coupled with a barrage of lockdowns, rules, regulations and threats. It is all about playing for time, in the hope that a vaccine miraculously comes along," it said.
"This is no way to tackle a disease which may be around for a long time, perhaps forever. The consequences to wider health and the economy have been devastating.
"Suicides are soaring, from students imprisoned in halls of residence to 88-year-old ladies who cannot see their relatives and naturally wonder: what is the point of life?"
Tens of thousands of people have died with COVID-19 in the UK but the party said ministers had "lost touch with a nation divided between the terrified and the furious".
"The debate over how to respond to COVID is becoming even more toxic than that over Brexit," it continued, before adding: "Lockdowns don't work: in fact, they cause more harm than good."
Instead, the party will back the Great Barrington Declaration, a letter organised by prominent advocates of herd immunity, which was signed by more than 15,000 scientists and medical practitioners, as well as more than 150,000 members of the general public.
Although, Sky News later found dozens of fake names on the list of medical signatories.
The party said Reform UK would promote "focused protection... targeting resources at those most at risk", adding that these people should "not be criminalised for the simple acts that make life worth living, particularly in their final years".
"The rest of the population should, with good hygiene measures and a dose of common sense, get on with life," it said. "This way we build immunity in the population. The young act as warriors, creating a shield of protection."