Reform UK will never take voters for granted, Yusuf says

Reform UK will never take voters for granted, Yusuf saysJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleJoshua NevettPolitical reporterPA MediaReform UK will "never take voters for granted", its home affairs spokesman has said, after the party made major gains in elections across England, Scotland and Wales.Zia Yusuf said the party would "welcome scrutiny" of its record following what he described as a "historic set of results for the country".Reform UK has gained more than 1,400 councillors across England so far, sweeping aside the Conservatives in Essex and Suffolk, and surging ahead of Labour in its northern and Midlands heartlands.Reform UK came second in the Welsh Parliament elections behind Plaid Cymru, while the party came joint second with Labour in Scotland.Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Yusuf claimed Reform UK was "the only truly national party that is competitive across the country".He said the party had taken "a big leap towards" making Reform UK leader Nigel Farage prime minister."What Reform has done for the first time in my political lifetime is offer a viable and real alternative to those two old parties," Yusuf said. "We will never take voters for granted."Yusuf said Reform UK had faced an increased level of scrutiny following its successes in last year's local elections in England, where the party gained control of 10 councils.Reform UK swept to victory across England with 31% of the vote last year, and has since sustained a lead over other parties in national opinion polls.The party has built on that success at the polls this year, in what Farage has called a "truly historic shift in British politics".When asked how the party would deal with more scrutiny following this set of elections, Yusuf said: "We welcome scrutiny. But I would argue no party has had their record in local government more scrutinised."He added: "The reality is this: we have been scrutini...