Who is Mike Hookem? Ukip MEP ‘who confronted Steven Woolfe in row that turned violent’
EX-COMMANDO engineer Mike Hookem is Ukip’s defence spokesman and in the past has been highly critical of the Tories over their failings to tackle immigration.
In the past he has described migrants trying to illegally get in to Britain through the Channel Tunnel as a threat to national security and called for troops to be sent to guard the entrance.
And on Tuesday he contributed to a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg about the situation in Calais.
But during a meeting with fellow Ukip MEPs today, it has been claimed that he had a confrontation with Steven Woolfe, which resulted in the North West England MEP being rushed to hospital after collapsing following the incident at the European Parliament.
The punch might have been thrown following an argument over "defection" in what has been described as a "clear the air" meeting, Sky News reported.
Before the incident, Mr Hookem was in the parliament calling for the UK to stop its intervention in Syria.
During the referendum campaign he blasted David Cameron and the Remain campaign for saying leaving the EU would put our security at risk.
The 62-year-old is the MEP for the Yorkshire and the Humber region for Ukip following his election in 2014.
He joined the party in 2008 and in 2010 stood in the general election in the Hull East constituency, coming fourth with 2,745 votes (8 per cent).
On his website the Hull-born politician says he joined the party because of the credit crunch: “My decision to join UKIP was initially prompted by the dismay and defeat I saw in the faces of the people that I came across everyday in the streets of my home city of Hull, as well as the struggling tenants that I dealt with in the course of my job as a property manager.
“The credit crunch was biting deep and like many people in the city, I felt abandoned, lied to, betrayed and fobbed off by everything political I had ever believed in.
“Up until this point, I had trusted Labour to do what was right for the working classes, but it was becoming more and more obvious to me that all the champagne socialists of the Labour party were interested in doing, was serving themselves, rather than the people they were elected to represent.
“I come from working class roots and was born into the fishing community on Hessle Road, west of Hull and had voted Labour all my life up until that point.”
He left school at 15 and thought he was going to follow in his dad’s footsteps and work on the fish docks.
But instead, at 17, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served for four years then came out determined to make a success of himself.
Still feeling the calling of military life he went back in the Armed Forces, joining the Royal Engineers as a Commando Engineer – a position he held for nine years.
Before joining Ukip he said he did not have any political experience “not unless you count shouting at TV’s Question Time every Thursday night”.
But he said: “It had become clear to me that if I didn’t do something, no-one would.”
During his time as the chairman of Ukip’s Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire regional committee he said he is proud of the difference he made – and left behind a far bigger and stronger organisation.
Describing himself as a “working class lad from the west end of Hull who calls a spade a spade” he said: “I do however promise to debunk the rubbish coming out of the EU, and to give the public the opportunity to understand what is being done in Europe in your name.”