UKIP MEP Steven Woolfe, who had been running to be the next leader, has quit the party saying that UKIP has become ungovernable and is in “a death spiral”.
Woolfe said he had reconsidered his ambitions to lead the party after a scuffle with a party colleague Mike Hookem outside a meeting in Strasbourg. The subsequent seizures following the fight had left Woolfe hospitalised for three nights.
Woolfe had also accused Hookem of inflicting a “blow” to his face in the public altercation at the meeting.
Hookem has acknowledged a “scuffle” but said he “categorically did not” throw a punch at his colleague.
Woolfe told the BBC there was “something rotten” in the party. He said he had come to the conclusion that UKIP was ungovernable without Nigel Farage leading it.
