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Paul Nuttall admitted today that his claim to have lost a close personal friend at the Hillsborough disaster is not true.

He made the claim on his website in 2011.

In a post about attempts to block the publication of files to do with the Hillsborough Inquiry, he wrote: "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.”

But in an interview with Radio City News, he first tried to deny having made the claim.

Presented with the evidence by a presenter who was also at the game, he said: "I haven't lost a close, personal friend. I've lost someone who I know."

(Image: Getty)

The presenter said: "Well, it's on your website."

Nuttall said: "I don't know who's written that."

The post lists Nuttall as the author.

Nuttall continued in his denial, taking the presenter's copy of the post and reading it in apparent disbelief.

He said: "I haven't lost anyone who was a close personal friend. It was people that I knew through football."

He said: "I'm sorry about that, but that is something...I haven't put that out. That is wrong."

But he continued to deny allegations he was not at the match, as he has long claimed.

He said: "I was there that day. I have witnesses. I have people who will stand up in court.

"And it's cruel, it's nasty. And it's making out my family are lying, which is not fair or right."

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: "It is sad to see a tragic event like Hillsborough being dragged into politics in this way.

“Paul Nuttall’s blatant untruths have caught up with him.

“I’m sure voters in Stoke will punish him as a result.”

During the interview, Nuttall also claimed he didn’t speak to the Sun newspaper in protest over their coverage of the 1989 tragedy.

But as recently as last month, articles on the Sun’s website included direct quotes given to them by Nuttall.

A January 20th article about Nuttall announcing his candidacy in Stoke read: “Paul Nuttall told The Sun that he has “put my hat in the ring” for the party’s selection today.”

A further article, dated December 8th, about Labour MPs who voted against Brexit, read: “Paul Nuttall told the Sun the party would devote all its energy towards booting out the five MPs”