UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has said he is “very sorry” for publishing two false claims that he lost close friends in the Hillsborough tragedy on his website.
The first article, published in 2011 and live on the MEP’s website until this week, Nuttall was quoted as saying:
“Revealing the facts on Hillsborough is hardly a matter of national security, it is a matter of natural justice…The briefings in question are the private memos that were sent to the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Without them being made public we will never get to the bottom of that appalling tragedy when 96 Liverpool fans including close personal friends of mine lost their lives.”
In the second article, published six months after the first, Nuttall said:
“I lost close friends at the match and understand as well as anyone how deep the scars of that tragedy go.”
The claims that his friends were amongst the 96 victims of the 1989 football disaster are entirely false.
In an interview with Liverpool’s Radio City station on Tuesday, Nuttall was asked about the two articles and conceded that he had not lost any close personal friends in the tragedy.
Nuttall now blames an aide for publishing the comments that says he never made and UKIP subsequently announced that a party press officer, Lynda Roughley, had taken responsibility for the posting and offered her resignation.
Other press releases published by Nuttall on his website in 2011 include an article where he complains that sexism is no longer tolerated, and another where he argues against climate change. It is unclear whether these articles now reflect the views of the UKIP leader.
The UKIP leader is currently contesting to Stoke Central by-election, where he has been investigated by the police after claimed he rented a house to mislead by-election voters about his home address.
