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Ukip's Steven Woolfe: Leadership favourite regains consciousness after 'attack' - as it happened Ukip's Steven Woolfe: Leadership favourite hospitalised after 'altercation' with fellow MEP Mike Hookem in European Parliament
(35 minutes later)
Here are the latest updates: Ukip descended into farce today after a meeting to resolve its leadership crisis ended with a fist-fight and the favourite to take the party’s helm needing urgent hospital treatment to a head injury.
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load. Shocking pictures emerged showing MEP Steven Woolfe collapsed on the floor in the middle of the European Parliament building in Strasbourg shortly after the brawl.
Ukip leadership favourite Steven Woolfe is recovering in hospital after being admitted in a "serious" condition following an altercation at a meeting of the party's MEPs. At the time, interim leader Nigel Farage said his condition was “serious” with another party figure claiming it was even “life-threatening”.
The 49-year-old MEP said in a statement that a CT scan had shown that there was no blood clot on his brain but that he was being kept in hospital overnight as a precaution. But high-profile immigration spokesman Mr Woolfe, who only 24-hours earlier had put his name forward to lead the party, later released a statement from his hospital bed saying he was recovering and being kept in overnight as a precaution.
"At the moment I am feeling brighter, happier, and smiling as ever. As a precaution, I am being kept in overnight awaiting secondary tests to make sure everything in fine," he said. The incident comes just days after Diane James said she would not take up the leadership, despite having been declared the winner of a contest just 18 days earlier.
"I would like everyone to know that the parliamentary staff, the Ukip MEPs with me and hospital staff have been brilliant. Their care has been exceptional. Ukip MEPs, including Mr Farage, Mr Woolfe and defence spokesman Mike Hookem had attended the party meeting to discuss the leadership crisis, following Ms James’s unexpected departure.
"I am sitting up, and said to be looking well. The only consequence at the moment is a bit of numbness on the left hand side of my face. " But the exchange at the meeting went beyond the usual political to and fro. A statement Mr Woolfe had recently released in which he admitted considering defecting to the Tories had annoyed some other party figures.
Earlier, Nigel Farage said Mr Woolfe was in a "serious" condition in hospital after a fight at a meeting of the party's MEPs. As the discussion became more heated sources said Mr Woolfe took his jacket off and suggested he and ex-commando Mr Hookem go outside.
A statement from Ukip's interim leader said: "I deeply regret that following an altercation that took place at a meeting of Ukip MEPs this morning that Steven Woolfe subsequently collapsed and was taken to hospital. In the ensuing tussle Mr Woolfe was reported to have hit his head, but when the fight ended colleagues believed him to be alright before they went for a vote.
"His condition is serious." Later on Mr Woolfe was seen collapsed on one of the building's internal bridges. He reportedly told the person who rushed over to assist him that he had “lost the feeling down one side of his body”.
A party spokesman said Mr Woolfe was "taken suddenly ill" in the European Parliament building in Strasbourg on Thursday morning. Footage shot from the scene showed paramedics treating the politician before he was taken to hospital for a CT scan and tests.
The spokesman added: "He has been taken to hospital in the city and he is undergoing tests." Mr Farage released a statement saying: “I deeply regret that following an altercation that took place at a meeting of Ukip MEPs this morning, that Steven Woolfe subsequently collapsed and was taken to hospital. His condition is serious.”
The incident comes the day after Mr Woolfe declared he was a candidate for the Ukip leadership following the shock resignation of Diane James. Ukip colleagues including Ms James, MP Douglas Carswell and Suzanne Evans, also thought to be a leadership hopeful, took to Twitter to offer their best wishes.
According to one source it took place at what was described as a "clear the air meeting" with MEPs who had been unhappy at his admission that he had considered defecting to the Conservatives. In the ensuing media frenzy, another leadership candidate, Raheem Kassam, said he had been told Mr Woolfe’s condition was “life threatening”. But reports began to emerge that the politician had woken up and was talking.
In his statement announcing his candidacy, Mr Woolfe said he had been "enthused" by Theresa May's start to her premiership. Eventually Mr Woolfe released a statement from the hospital in Strasbourg, saying: “The CT scan has shown that there is no blood clot in the brain.
"Her support of new grammar schools, her words on social mobility and the growing evidence that she is committed to a clean Brexit prompted me, as it did many of my friends and colleagues, to wonder whether our future was within her new Conservative Party," he said. “At the moment I am feeling brighter, happier, and smiling as ever. As a precaution,  I am being kept in overnight awaiting secondary tests to make sure everything in fine.
“I would like everyone to know that the parliamentary staff, the Ukip MEPs with me and hospital staff have been brilliant. Their care has been exceptional. I am sitting up, and said to be looking well. The only consequence at the moment is a bit of numbness on the left hand side of my face.”
Mr Woolfe, often described as Mr Farage’s chosen successor, played a prominent role in the party’s European Union referendum campaign and was viewed by many as an impressive media performer.
He had celebrated the referendum victory for Leave at Manchester town hall, where the official count was taking place, in the early hours of 24 June.
But his rapid ascent to the top of the Eurosceptic party’s ranks came to a sudden halt in August after he submitted his leadership application 17 minutes late. Ukip’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, decided he was ineligible as a result and barred him from standing in the election.
At the time the barrister, who joined Ukip in 2010 before being elected as an MEP for North West England in 2014, said he was “extremely disappointed” and criticised the party’s executive for “confirming members’ fears that it is neither effective nor professional”.
But with Ms James’s resignation on Tuesday, Mr Woolfe had thrown his hat into the ring once more, having also won the backing of the millionaire businessman Arron Banks.
Mr Farage has launched an inquiry into the altercation in Strasbourg.