The Ukip leadership favourite, Steven Woolfe, has been taken to hospital after an altercation with a fellow party MEP, following a meeting of the party in the European parliament.

Woolfe, who later said he was recovering well and “smiling as ever”, collapsed during a vote in Strasbourg and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.

Earlier that morning Woolfe had allegedly been involved in a confrontation with his fellow Ukip MEP Mike Hookem after a tense meeting that was intended to “clear the air” with colleagues.

The party was plunged into turmoil hours earlier when the MEP Diane James resigned as leader after just 18 days in the position, and then further by Woolfe’s admission that he had considered defecting to the Tories, before declaring he would stand for the Ukip leadership.

A Ukip source said Woolfe had had two “epileptic-like fits”, and started to feel numbness on one side of his body in the hours after the alleged altercation. He then lost consciousness but tests confirmed there had been no bleeding on the brain.

“I am feeling brighter, happier and smiling as ever. I am sitting up and said to look well,” Woolfe said in a statement from hospital on Thursday afternoon. “The CT scan has shown that there is no blood clot in the brain. The only consequence at the moment is a bit of numbness on the left hand side of my face. I am being kept in overnight awaiting secondary tests to make sure everything is fine.”

Woolfe was alleged to have been confronted by Hookem – the party’s defence spokesman, who served in the RAF and Royal Engineers – during the meeting. Hookem is understood to have said “a few choice words” to Woolfe about defecting to the Tories.

“Steven Woolfe has then taken his jacket off, walked over and said: ‘Right you, outside now’ or words to that effect,” a source close to the party told the Guardian. “They went outside and Steven Woolfe got the brunt of it.”

It is understood that Woolfe struck his head but walked away from the alleged altercation at about 10am, and appeared well enough to vote in the parliament half an hour later. However, he left midway through the vote and collapsed on a walkway at about 12.30pm. ITV News pictured the MEP shortly after his collapse, sprawled face down with his belongings strewn around him.

The MEP Nathan Gill, a friend of Woolfe and his campaign manager, accompanied Woolfe to hospital, followed by Ukip’s interim leader, Nigel Farage, who said he had “feared for [Woolfe’s] life”.

Steven Woolfe collapsed on a walkway at the European parliament in Strasbourg. Photograph: ITV

Speaking to reporters after visiting Woolfe in hospital, Farage said: “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.”

Neil Hamilton, Ukip’s leader in the Welsh assembly, said he had been told by colleagues in the European parliament that Woolfe had “picked a fight with one of them and came off worse”.

Hamilton told the BBC he had heard from a witness that Woolfe had bleeding on the brain, after he was knocked over and hit his head. “He toppled over and hit his head on a glass window so it must have been quite a wallop,” said Hamilton.

Strasbourg police said they had not been called to investigate, and it is understood that no complaint has been made by Woolfe. Farage refused to name Hookem as the other MEP involved.

“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,” Farage said.

A spokeswoman for Hookem, 62, denied a physical fight took place, telling MailOnline: “Mike did not touch him.”

Woolfe, 49, later claimed Hookem “came at me and landed a blow”, pushing him into a door frame. He told the Daily Mail: “Mike was obviously very angry and lost his temper.



“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.”



Hookem told the Mail: “I did not hit Steven and I did not see him hit his head.” He suggested that the MEP for North West England had tripped instead.



Suzanne Evans, Ukip’s former deputy chair, who is said to be considering her own leadership bid, tweeted: “Shocked to hear Steven Woolfe has apparently collapsed in the European parliament in Strasbourg. Wishing him well for a speedy recovery.”



Farage’s former aide Raheem Kassam, who is also running to be Ukip leader, earlier said he was dropping out of an appearance on the BBC’s Daily Politics out of respect for Woolfe. “I really hope Steven Woolfe is okay,” he tweeted. “Plz send him your best wishes.”



Woolfe announced on Wednesday that he was reviving his bid to become the Ukip leader after the resignation of James, who cited lack of support from colleagues as her reason for stepping down.

Woolfe was blocked from running in the previous contest to succeed Farage – for which he was the favourite – after submitting his forms 17 minutes late.

There had long been rumours Woolfe was poised to defect to the Tories, which he addressed in a statement released on Wednesday. “I have been enthused by the start to Theresa May’s premiership,” he said.

“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.

“However, having watched the prime minister’s speech on Sunday, I came to the conclusion that only a strong Ukip can guarantee Brexit is delivered in full, and only our party can stand up for the communities of the Midlands and the north.”

Hamilton said a culture of abuse in the party had been allowed to grow. “There is, actually, too much violence going on in Ukip generally at the moment. I don’t mean physical violence, but stuff which is being traded online, some pretty unpleasant things that are being said,” he said.

“This is a cancer which must be stamped out in the party,” he said, adding “[it] should have been stamped out already”.