Brexit Secretary David Davis held defection talks with UKIP leadership contender Steven Woolfe

BREXIT SECRETARY David Davis held defection talks with UKIP leadership contender Steven Woolfe, the Sun can reveal.

The pair met before Tory party conference in one of a number of conversations the UKIP MEP had with Conservatives, including chairman Patrick McLoughlin.

3

Sources last night insisted there was little chance of a defection given the controversy triggered by Mr Woolfe’s brawl with fellow UKIP MEP Mike Hookem in the European Parliament.

One senior UKIP insider claimed: “They won’t have him now. He’s had a record of being aggressive and I’m afraid it all came out again. It’s a shame as he’s very talented.”

Neither Mr Woolfe nor the Conservative Party would comment yesterday.

3

RELATED STORIES

NOT QUITE AN ITALIAN STALLION

Boris Johnson tried to speak Italian in Parliament and it didn't go quite how he planned

'I've never doubted it'

Nicola Sturgeon says Scotland 'WILL become independent' if Tories are 'intent on a hard Brexit'

IS HE REALLY SORRY?

Shamed billionaire Sir Philip Green says collapse of BHS has been 'horrible' for him and his family

'A NECESSARY DESTROYER'

Margaret Thatcher narrowly beats David Cameron to be named worst prime minister of the century

Friends of Mr Davis insisted his meeting with the UKIP politician was “brief”.

He said: “It was one a number I believe Steven Woolfe was having with the Tories around the time.”

3

The revelations come 24 hours after Mr Woolfe claimed UKIP was in “a death spiral” as he quit the party – and said that he intended to continue as an independent in the European Parliament.

He said huge divisions in the party had created “huge negative camps”, and that UKIP was “ungovernable without Nigel Farage leading it and the referendum cause to unite it.”