Nigel Farage has declared the Tories are 'finished' as he defended his Reform UK party's losses in last week's parliamentary by-elections.

Despite Reform's hopes of running Andy Burnham close in the Makerfield by-election, the Labour politician secured a thumping win.

The would-be prime minister beat second-placed Reform candidate Robert Kenyon by more than 9,000 votes.

On the same day, the Tories won a Westminster by-election in Scotland for the first time in more than 50 years, taking Aberdeen South from the SNP. A third contest held on Thursday saw the SNP retain the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry seat.

In the wake of those results, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has moved to kill off any prospect of an electoral pact with Mr Farage.

In an article for the Mail on Sunday, Mrs Badenoch emphasised distinctions between her Conservatives and Reform.

She criticised Mr Farage's party over their support for 'a bigger state, more spending, nationalisation, gimmicks and unfunded giveaways', saying: 'Reform dress like Thatcherites but act like Corbynites'.

But Mr Farage used his own newspaper article to take a swipe at the Tories as one of the 'tired old Westminster parties' as he dismissed their victory in Aberdeen South as a 'protest vote against the SNP'.

Defending his party's performance in Makerfield, the Reform leader suggested the result of that contest was due to the unique circumstances of a by-election in which Mr Burnham was seeking a return to Parliament in order to challenge Keir Starmer.

'The public mood is clear: everyone wants Starmer gone,' Mr Farage wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

'Look, of course, we would have preferred to win. No serious political party enters a contest hoping merely to come second.

'We fought hard, our candidate worked tirelessly and our supporters gave everything they had.

'Naturally, there will be disappointment that we fell short. But there is a danger in viewing a single result in isolation.'

He added: 'As for the tired old Westminster parties, they would prefer everyone to focus on one result and one result alone. They would like to pretend that a by-election defeat somehow represents a setback for our movement.

'But the facts tell a very different story. What we are witnessing is a steady and sustained re-alignment of British politics. Millions of voters who once felt politically homeless are finding a new home with us.

'People who voted Conservative for decades are looking around and asking what exactly they received in return. The Conservatives managed 2.2 per cent of the vote in Makerfield and humiliatingly didn’t even manage to keep their deposit. What does that tell you?

'Yes, the Tories managed to win Aberdeen South this week, a result widely seen as a protest vote against the SNP and its abandonment of oil drilling in the area. Good for them.

'But I would argue the Tories’ former chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who imposed ridiculous windfall taxes in his last budget, destroyed investment in the North Sea. The fact is, the Conservative Party as a political force is finished.'

Amid signs of a deepening feud between the Tories and Reform, Mrs Badenoch used her own newspaper article to say of the differences between the Tories and Reform: 'We are not the same, and voters are not ours to trade like football cards.'

'Farage may be trying to unite the Right, I am trying to unite the country,' she added. 

'Some say refusing a deal risks letting in Left-wing coalitions. I disagree. The way to stop Left-wing coalitions is to build a Conservative majority that reaches beyond the Right.

''Unite the Right' is really just a demand that Conservatives stand down and give Reform a free run because they can't win a general election otherwise. Well, we can.'