The UK Independence Party MEP involved in an “altercation” with leadership favourite Steven Woolfe has denied he punched him and said the pair had instead wrestled like a “pair of tarts”.

Mike Hookem, Ukip’s defence spokesman, blamed Mr Woolfe for starting the incident during a meeting to discuss Mr Woolfe’s admission that he had considered defecting to the Conservatives in recent months.

Speaking for the first time since the incident, Mr Hookem told The Daily Telegraph: “I never saw him hit his head on anything in that room."