In an opinion piece published by The Telegraph on Sunday, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said that the organisation will be rebranded as Reform UK to fight the anti-coronavirus steps taken by the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The piece, which was written by Farage and party chairman Richard Tice, pointed out that it was "time to redirect our energies", adding that documents related to the group's name change had been submitted to the Electoral Commission.
"We are showing the courage needed to take on consensus thinking and vested interests on COVID. But there are so many areas of public life that can be improved to benefit ordinary people. That is why we will campaign for Reform. We want to be known as the party of Reform. The name reflects the ambition: Reform UK", Farage and Tice stressed.
They pledged that the party would continue to keep a "close eye" on post-Brexit developments and the government's "woeful response" to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the two said remains the "single most pressing issue".
"The debate over how to respond to COVID is becoming even more toxic than that over Brexit", Farage and Tice underscored, claiming that "lockdowns don't work" and that they actually "cause more harm than good".
They underlined the importance of hammering out a new strategy to grapple with the coronavirus so that "we learn to live with it, not hide in fear of it".
Johnson Announces New National COVID-19 Lockdown
Farage and Tice's remarks came just a day after Prime Minister Johnson announced that England would go into a four-week national lockdown as of 5 November to prevent the UK's National Health Service from being overwhelmed by increasing COVID-19 cases.
Johnson told reporters on Saturday that there was "no alternative" to a second lockdown and that "no responsible prime minister" could ignore the increasing spike in COVID-19 infections across England. "Unless we act, we could see deaths in this country running at several thousand a day", he added.
He spoke as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across Britain passed one million, with fatalities soaring to 46,617, according to the UK Department of Health and Social Care's latest situation report.
