UKIP leader Nigel Farage told reporters as he came out of Hautepierre hospital where he visited Steven Woolfe that the party would hold an inquiry, reports David Chazan in Strasbourg.

“He’s in a much better place than he was a few hours ago. He did, as you know collapse coming out of the chamber during the voting session, and hit the ground pretty hard. He has suffered two seizures, one quite major one, which is obviously pretty serious.

“He did lose consciousness for a bit so things are pretty bad. He has had a series of scans. I’m pleased to say there is no bleeding on the brain and they’ve not found any clots.

"He is being kept in overnight for observation. He still has a bit of numbness down the left side of his face so it is a pretty serious medical incident but he’s sitting up in bed and he’s feeling a lot better.

“I trust that overnight everything will be OK and he’ll be released tomorrow.”

Mr Farage expected Mr Woolfe to be “laid up for a little bit” after what he described as “a big shock” that had “caused us to fear for his life.”

“It’s two grown men getting involved in an altercation. It’s not very seemly behaviour but I’m not today going to get involved in the blame game or name names or say who did what,” Mr Farage said.

Mr Farage refused to name the man who threw the punch, and said UKIP “will have an inquiry and decide what to do.”

He admitted that it was “not good” for UKIP. “You see third world parliaments where this sort of thing happens… It’s not very grown up. What’s happened is not good.”

Mr Farage declined to say whether Mr Woolfe was still likely to become party leader.

He said there was no French police investigation because no complaint had been lodged.

He said Mr Woolfe had collapsed at about 12-20 and he did not personally witness the fight.

“I was in the room but what happened happened slightly outside of it. I was physically close to it but didn’t actually see it,” Mr Farage said.

“We as a party take every incident seriously… We’ve never had one like this, of this nature before … We will have an inquiry and decide what to do.

“It’s been an extraordinary week. As somebody that had walked away from the leadership and now finds himself back in the middle of all of this. It’s not exactly where I wanted to be and it’s not where UKIP need to be.”