Google reveals
4.5 million results of "UK variant" +covid
as of 20 January 2021 (
archived). Some government/media sources, including the British ones, used it as a name, some used it colloquially. It is one of the top four terms in common (colloquial) usage, including
U.K. Covid-19 variant,
U.K. Coronavirus variant,
U.K. variant and
U.K. strain (click the above links for a list of source). The consensus on
Request for Comment for UK- usage on the talk page of VOC 202012/01 is to include these terms prominently in the article's lede.