The altercation between two Ukip MEPs at the European parliament that left one hospitalised was the best thing that could have happened to the party, its leadership frontrunner has said. Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader and former chair of Ukip, said the confrontation between Mike Hookem and Steven Woolfe, after which Woolfe collapsed, had been a wake-up call that the party had desperately needed. “Although what happened in Strasbourg made us look shambolic, in the long term it’s probably the best thing that could have happened to the party,” Nuttall told the Guardian. He has spent the last few weeks in his home town of Liverpool, gathering nominations from Ukip MEPs, Welsh assembly members and executive committee. “Ukip is at its best at its most radical, when we are the outriders on issues and we lead and don’t follow.”

Source: The Guardian October 31, 2016 07:02 UTC