UKIP OUT FOR THE COUNT
As party that changed Britain implodes, would-be leader tells Mail how he was f loored by fellow MEP
AN MEP last night revealed he had two seizures after being punched by a UKIP colleague in the European Parliament.
Speaking to the Mail from his hospital bed, Steven Woolfe said Mike Hookem ‘came at me and landed a blow’.
The astonishing altercation took place in Strasbourg yesterday morning. ‘Mike was obviously very angry and lost his temper,’ said Mr Woolfe, who is favourite to be the party’s next leader.
At one stage it was feared the married father of one was fighting for his life. A tearful Nigel Farage was battling to stop the party breaking apart and UKIP’s biggest donor threatened to quit.
Mr Hookem strenuously denied punching his colleague and his allies accused Mr Woolfe of tripping over. But the clash plunged UKIP into fresh turmoil 48 hours after leader Diane James resigned just 18 days into the job.
Mr Woolfe had thrown his hat into the ring to succeed her – despite admitting he had considered defecting to the Tories. His confession infuriated colleagues and – at a ‘clear-the-air’ meeting of UKIP MEPs – tempers boiled over.
Tensions between Mr Woolfe and Mr Hookem, a former soldier, became particularly heated. Mr Woolfe allegedly challenged his fellow MEP to ‘step outside’ and settle their differences ‘man on man’. Both took off their jackets.
Mr Woolfe, who turned 49 yesterday, told the Mail: ‘I wasn’t bruising for a scrap. I asked to deal with the matter outside of the room because it was flaring up in the meeting and upsetting everybody, and Mike clearly read that totally the wrong way. It was a completely unexpected incident.
‘Mike came at me and landed a blow. The door
frame took the biggest hit after I was shoved into it and I knew I’d taken a whack and was pretty shaken.’
Mr Woolfe, the MEP for North West England, said he banged his head as he fell. Mr Hookem said: ‘I did not hit Steven and I did not see him hit his head.’ A friend close to Mr Hookem, 62, insisted it had been a verbal altercation: ‘In the meeting, Mr Woolfe told Mike that they should “go outside and deal with this man on man”.
‘When they went out, Steven threw the first punch. He then tripped over his own feet and fell over. It was all pretty schoolyard. There is no indication at all that he hit his head.’
The two men returned to the meeting and retrieved their jackets, then went off to vote in the EU parliament’s main chamber.
Two hours later, Mr Woolfe collapsed, unable to feel one side of his body. A photo showed him sprawled face-down on the parquet floor of a glass-panelled bridge walkway inside the EU building. Paramedics rushed him to hospital with suspected bleeding on the brain. His wife Fiona was informed.
He later issued a statement saying the scan had showed no blood clot and he was feeling much better.
Last night he told the Mail that after the altercation with Mr Hookem he had gone for a cup of tea and then into the chamber to vote.
He said: ‘I began feeling woozy and knew something wasn’t right so I ran out to get help. I started shouting, “Where is the medical centre?” and was pointed over a walkway bridge. That’s the last I can remember. I don’t remem-
‘I felt woozy and knew something wasn’t right’
ber anything else. Next thing I know, I woke up surrounded by Parliament staff, lying on the floor and they ran to get my colleague Nathan Gill, who then came with me to the hospital. The doctors told me I had had one seizure lasting three minutes and then another.’
Mr Woolfe, who grew up in the infamous Moss Side area of Manchester and became a barrister, was disqualified from the last Ukip leadership contest because he handed in his nomination papers 17 minutes late.
He said last night: ‘There was a lot of anger expressed towards me over what happened in the summer around the leadership contest, and the fallout on social media after I was barred from standing. Mike was obviously very angry over what happened and lost his temper.
‘You don’t get into politics if you aren’t passionate, but I must admit this is a first! I’m all right now, thankfully. You can’t knock a lad from Moss Side down for long.’
Ukip Welsh Assembly leader Neil Hamilton said: ‘Steven picked a fight and came off worst.’
A Ukip source said: ‘Mike was furious that Steven had been talking to the Tories. How could he get up and say he wanted to be leader, when just hours earlier he was thinking about defecting? Mike told him that it was a betrayal, that he had breached their trust.’
A second source said: ‘Woolfe says to Hookem, “I’ve had enough of this. Let’s settle this outside”.’ A third said: ‘He said, “Come outside and sort this out like a man”.’
It was some time before Mr Hookem could be contacted for his version of events. He was said to have decided to drive back to London.
French police said the incident had not been reported to them and they had no plans to investigate.
Millionaire backer Aaron Banks demanded the suspension of the party’s ruling national executive committee.
He accused the party’s ‘Tory troublemakers and fifth columnists’ of plotting against Mr Woolfe. Mr Farage likened the conduct to what ‘you see in third world parliaments’ and said: ‘He did lose consciousness for a bit, so I think things were pretty bad. A few of us thought, for a moment, that he wouldn’t make it.
‘It is two grown men getting involved in an altercation it is not very seemly behaviour. It should not have happened. I was in the room but what happened was slightly outside of it so I did not see it.’