Machibet AffiliateNigel Farage relaunches Brexit Party as anti-lockdown Reform UK as backbench Tories rebel over 'draconian' Covid rules | The Sun - Machibet777 Live

NIGEL Farage is relaunching the Brexit Party as an anti-lockdown party called Reform UK.

The former leader of UKIP and MEP, 56, will formally announce the move along with Richard Tice, the chairman of the Brexit Party, on Monday.

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Nigel Farage is launching Reform UK as an anti-lockdown partyCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd

Mr Farage is forming Reform UK with the Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice, rightCredit: Getty - Contributor

Mr Farage was busy posting Twitter messages to his followers earlier todayCredit: Twitter

In a joint article for , they said that “lockdowns don’t work” and that their new party wants “focused protection” for only the most vulnerable people from Covid, letting others develop herd immunity.

Papers to change the name of the party were submitted to the Electoral Commission last week.

The party hopes to stand candidates in May’s local elections and the next general election in 2024.

Nigel Farage said: “We feel there is a massive political hole at the moment.

“The crisis has shown how badly governed we are - everything from our quangoes to the £12bn we have wasted on track and trace, to firms being given the most ludicrous contracts, to illegal immigration where we tough talk and nothing ever happens.

“The whole system of government in the UK is not working, and is therefore in need of very radical reform.

“Brexit is about making us free, but beyond Brexit we have to be governed better.

“Brexit is the beginning of what we need. Brexit gives us self-governance - we now need to have good self-governance.”

The whole system of government in the UK is not working, and is therefore in need of very radical reform
Nigel Farage

Party Chairman Richard Tice said: “The need for major reform in the UK is clearer now than ever. A new approach is essential, so that government works for the people, not for itself.

“The most urgent issue is a new Coronavirus strategy, so that we learn to live with it, not hide in fear of it.”

The party will back the Great Barrington Declaration, a policy backed by medics and scientists that called for only elderly and vulnerable people to be “locked down”.

The news is likely to worry libertarian members of the Conservative Party after UKIP and then The Brexit Party saw them attract previous Tory supporters.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson now faces a rebellion from backbench Tory MPs who are angry England will be put under a second lockdown.

Several high profile Tories have said they will vote against the lockdown measures.

Former Cabinet minister Esther McVey wrote on Instagram:

“I will be voting against the new national lockdown on Wednesday when it comes before the House of Commons.

“The ‘lockdown cure’ is causing more harm than Covid.

“The world cannot be put on hold, and the Government must stop pressing the pause and stop button for the whole nation on a whim, with all the disastrous effects this brings to our lives, livelihoods, health and relationships.”

I will be voting against the new national lockdown on Wednesday when it comes before the House of Commons
Esther McVey

While former party leader Sir Ian Duncan Smith wrote on Twitter: “Just as the economy was picking up, even giving cause for optimism, we’re now to impersonate the Grand Old Duke of York, giving in to the scientific advisers & marching England back into another lockdown.

“The way that the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has pressurised the Government into taking this decision has been unprecedented. Normally, advisers advise & ministers decide.

“Yet that system has broken down … with Sage believing its advice to be more like commandments written on stone and its members publicly lecturing the Government over the airways when it disagrees.

“This is despite the fact that many of its recommendations have been hotly disputed by other reputable scientists.”

Sir Graham Brady, the head of the party's 1922 Committee, which represents backbenchers, told BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour he is likely to vote against the new restrictions.

The Brexit Party won 29 seats in the European Parliament last year, just ten weeks after it was formed.

The party once had 150,000 “registered supporters” but this is thought to have now dwindled to tens of thousands.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds is said to have been pledged in support.

In the article they write: "Lockdowns don’t work: in fact, they cause more harm than good.

“But there is a credible alternative, recommended by some of the finest epidemiologists and medics in the world. It is .

“It is effectively being practised to a large degree in Sweden, with considerable success.

"Focused protection is the key, targeting resources at those most at risk: the elderly, vulnerable or those with other medical conditions.

“Many of them of course would prefer to hug their grandchildren and enjoy a family Christmas with loved ones.

“They 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.

“This way we build immunity in the population. The young act as warriors, creating a shield of protection.

“Multi-generational households will of course need to implement stricter measures."

Earlier today Mr Farage wrote in a message: “There is no political voice opposing this new national lockdown in England. I think that may change very soon.”

The Great Barrington Declaration advocates only the elderly and most vulnerable locking down in a pandemic and has been backed by thousands of scientists and doctors while many have remained sceptical the policy would work.

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said: "The Brexit Party has submitted an application to change its name to 'Reform UK'.