UKIP’S gaffe-prone leader has been criticised by families of Hillsborough victims after being caught lying about the disaster that claimed the lives of 96 people in 1989.

On his website, the right-winger claimed he had lost “close personal friends” during the tragedy, yet yesterday when confronted with that claim on Liverpool’s Radio City, he admitted that it simply was not true.

Nuttall blamed whoever put the words on his website.

Bereaved families reacted with dismay. Margaret Aspinall, the chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group who lost her 18-year-old son James, described the admission as “appalling”.

“There’s a lot of people who survived that day who did lose personal friends. It’s devastating for them because they’re still suffering and for the guy now to backtrack is appalling,” she said.

The MEP is standing in the Stoke Central by-election, where Ukip hope to take the safe Labour seat in the vote caused by the resignation of Tristram Hunt.

Even Nuttall’s claim to have attended the game has come under scrutiny, with The Guardian running a series of articles quoting a number of people close to the politician who said this was not true.

Childhood friends, and former teacher, told the paper they could not recall Nuttall mentioning the stadium disaster. The teacher, a Roman Catholic Priest, said the school should have been aware of every child at Hillsborough that day, so they could help with the trauma.

The Hillsborough Family Support Group also questioned why despite being a politician with a connection to the disaster, he had never offered the group any support.

Nuttall, who was 12 at the time of the disaster, insisted he was there with his dad and two uncles.

In a press release on his website in August 2011, Nuttall urged the Government to release files on Hillsborough.

He was quoted as saying: “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.”

When radio presenter, Dave Easson, who was at Hillsborough on that day, pressed him, Nuttall replied: “I haven’t lost a close, personal friend. I’ve lost someone who I know.”

Nuttall then added: “I’m sorry about that, but that is something … I haven’t put that out. That is wrong.”

When asked if he had been there back in 1989 he angrily replied: “I was there on that day. I have witnesses, people who will stand up in court and back me up 100 per cent. It is cruel and nasty and is making out that my family are lying as well.”

Staffordshire Police are also now investigating allegations of election fraud after Nuttall’s nomination papers gave an address in the city where he wasn’t living. The house was empty and up for rent.

It’s not the first time claims on the politician’s website have been found not be entirely accurate.

He once claimed to have been a professional footballer with Tranmere Rovers.

Rovers said no. Nuttal has been in the youth side, but never pro.

His LinkedIn page claimed he a PhD. He didn’t, though he had started doctoral studies.

That page “wasn’t put up by us, and we don’t know where it’s come from” the Ukip boss promised.

Though, bizarrely, Nuttall was once also forced to deny an internet rumour that he played the character of Bungle in the hit kids’ show Rainbow. Pranksters changed Nuttall’s Wikipedia page to include the claim he had been “the original Bungle” in the 70s show.

The politician was born in 1976, four years after the show was first broadcast.