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Agence France-Presse

British UKIP MEP Steven Woolfe is being kept in hospital for two more days, a colleague said Friday, after he collapsed following a bust-up in the European Parliament that threatens to tear apart a key force behind Brexit.
The UK Independence Party’s leader Nigel Farage, whose resignation announcement after the June vote to leave the EU brought party tensions to the surface, announced an internal investigation into Thursday’s incident.
European Parliament president Martin Schulz also announced a probe “as a matter of urgency” into the incident which saw Woolfe collapse unconscious on an elevated walkway in the parliament building in Strasbourg.

“The reported facts are extremely serious. It goes without saying that disrespectful and violent behaviour does not have a place in the European Parliament,” Schulz said in a statement.
Woolfe, a former barrister, accused fellow MEP Mike Hookem, an ex-soldier, of hitting him.
“Mike came at me and landed a blow,” Woolfe was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying from his French hospital bed.
Hookem has denied punching Woolfe, saying: “I did not hit Steven and I did not see him hit his head.”.
Woolfe was rushed to hospital and initially said to be in a serious condition after suffering two “epileptic-like fits” and passing out.
UKIP MEP Nathan Gill said Woolfe had been asked to stay “for observation in the hospital’s neurological ward for the next couple of days”.
Gill added that Woolfe did not want the police involved.

The incident caps an extraordinary week for the party that effectively forced then prime minister David Cameron to call a referendum on European Union membership and was the third largest party by votes cast in last year’s election.
Diane James, UKIP’s newly-nominated leader, announced she was stepping down on Tuesday, just 18 days after winning a leadership contest, saying she did not have the “full support” of the party’s MEPs.
Party chairman Paul Oakden said James was shaken after being spat at in a London train station shortly after the leadership announcement.
UKIP’s main backer Arron Banks has threatened to leave the party, saying there were “Tory troublemakers and fifth columnists” in its ranks.
“People have worked too long and too hard to get UKIP where it is today, but it is clear that we ourselves are at breaking point,” Banks said in a statement on Thursday.
The insurance millionaire is reportedly considering setting up a new right-wing party.

Party colleagues said the fight broke out at a party meeting after Woolfe admitted he had considered joining Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives.
Woolfe said he had decided to stay with UKIP to ensure the government delivers Brexit.
“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.
“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,” he told the Daily Mail.
Woolfe said he banged his head as he fell.
“I began feeling woozy and knew something wasn’t right so I ran out to get help. I started shouting ‘Where is the medical centre?’ and was pointed over a walkway bridge. That’s the last I can remember.
“Next thing I know, I woke up surrounded by parliament staff, lying on the floor.”
Commentators said the incident underlined the struggle unleashed after veteran leader Farage announced in July he was stepping down, having achieved his life’s ambition of a vote to leave the EU.
“UKIP Out For the Count,” read a front-page headline in the Daily Mail, whose columnist Dominic Sandbrook wrote: “Unless it can somehow rise above its vicious court politics, UKIP’s day is done”.
The Times called the incident “dangerous, embarrassing and potentially tragic” and warned the party would lose votes if its elected representatives “behave like football hooligans on the lash”.


UKIP ‘at breaking point’ after European Parliament bust-up

Member of the European Parliamen Nathan Gill and UKIP press officer Hermann Kelly talk to journalists outside the Hautepierre Hospital in Strasbourg, France. Photo: Reuters

In this image made available Friday Oct. 7, 2016, released by UK Independence Party (UKIP), UKIP MEP Steven Woolfe gives a thumbs up from his hospital bed at Hospital De Hautepierr in Strasbourg, France, Friday Oct. 7 , 2016, where he is recovering following an altercation with a colleague in the European Parliament. U.K. Independence Party legislator Woolfe has been moved to the hospital's neurological unit as a precaution, after being injured Thursday. (Hermann Kelly UKIP via AP)

United Kingdom Independence Party defence spokeperson Mike Hookem speaks after unveiling a new campaign poster in Dudley, central England, April 7, 2015. REUTERS/Darren Staples

European Parliament President Martin Schulz looks on during a debate for the preparation for the upcoming European Council summit of EU leaders taking place on October 20-21 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France on October 5, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / FREDERICK FLORIN

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