Tri-Service

Woolfe Offers 'Hand Of Friendship' To UKIP Defence Spokesman

UKIP leadership favourite Steven Woolfe has "reached out the hand of friendship" to the party's defence spokesman Mike Hookem, after an altercation which resulted in the former being treated in hospital, a colleague has said.

After visiting him in hospital in Strasbourg, UKIP's Nathan Gill said Mr Woolfe accepted that "things did go too far" during his confrontation with his fellow MEP in the European Parliament on Thursday.

Mr Gill told reporters that while Mr Woolfe was recovering well, he was being kept in hospital for a further 48 hours as a precautionary measure. He said:

"It was at one stage touch and go."

Meanwhile, the party's chairman has admitted that the investigation into the clash may struggle to get the bottom of what happened.

Paul Oakden said there were no independent witnesses to the altercation, but added that with Mr Woolfe now recovering, he was "hopeful" the two men would accept that what had happened was "regrettable" and agree to "move on" and get on with the election of a new party leader.

The confrontation erupted during a heated meeting of UKIP MEPs. Two hours later Mr Woolfe collapsed and was rushed to hospital, where he underwent a brain scan.

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Mr Woolfe told the Daily Mail that Mr Hookem "came at me and landed a blow" after they left the meeting room to continue the argument and he banged into a door frame.

Mr Hookem, who served in the RAF and British Army, has said he did not punch Mr Woolfe and that he did not see him hit his head, however.

Mr Oakden, who is leading the investigation into what happened, said the conflicting accounts may make it difficult to establish the truth. He told BBC Breakfast:

"I have spoken to people who were there and everything I am being told at the moment would suggest that there were no witnesses. That is going to present a problem."

"I hope that we don't end up in a situation where we just have two members here disagreeing on the facts but with nobody else able to corroborate either.

"What I am hopeful of is that we have two members who accept that something happened yesterday that was unfortunate, regrettable, and they, as we all do, will want to move on from it and focus on electing our new leader."

In a statement, Nigel Farage - currently the party's interim leader - confirmed he had asked Mr Oakden and the party secretary to conduct an investigation "from which the truth will be discovered".

UKIP interim leader Nigel Farage

"All other claims being made in the media by representatives of UKIP who were not even there at the time are extremely unhelpful," he said.

Despite more damaging publicity for the party, Mr Oakden insisted that they would recover from the incident:

"We are a functioning party of tens of thousands of members. This is two members who had an incident, an altercation. We will deal with it in due course and with appropriate action once we know the facts."

However Lisa Duffy, who was runner-up in the last leadership contest, said the incident raised questions as to Mr Woolfe's suitability to become leader following the shock resignation on Wednesday of Diane James.

"I have been talking to a lot of members over the last few hours. They are embarrassed about what's happening to the party," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Do we want a leader who will get himself involved in an altercation or do we want a leader who is going to be rational and reflect and deal with things in an appropriate manner?

"Violence or any kind of offering to go outside is not the way to deal with problems."

Ms Duffy said she had spoken to Mr Hookem, who categorically denied throwing any punches.

He told her that the incident was sparked by a row over comments by Mr Woolfe admitting that he had considered defecting to the Tories.

"Steven then said 'Let's take this outside' and started taking his jacket off. Mike then said there was a small scuffle but absolutely no punches were thrown," Ms Duffy said.

"He said then a door opened and Steven fell backwards, which is when he then hit his head. But he is categorically stating that he never threw a punch at Steven."

Mr Woolfe has insisted he was not "bruising for a scrap" and that Mr Hookem had read his suggestion they should deal with the matter outside of the meeting room "totally the wrong way".