Paul Nuttall has been mocked on Twitter after conceding that he had not "lost close personal friends" during the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. It is the latest in a string of claims about his personal history that the Ukip leader has had to backtrack on.

On Wednesday morning (15 February) Twitter users posted questions with the hashtag #askpaulnuttall. They invited the Stoke-on-Trent by-election candidate to clarify details about other biographical incidents which may – or may not have – taken place.

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A 2011 blog post on Nuttall's website stated that "close personal friends" of his had died at the Hillsborough disaster. On Tuesday he told Radio City News: "I haven't lost a close personal friend. I lost someone who I know. That's not from me. I'm sorry."

A spokesperson for Ukip told IBTimes UK that the erroneous blog post had been written by a junior press officer without Nuttall's oversight.

Nuttall previously blamed a Ukip press officer for a claim made on his website that he played professional football for Tranmere Rovers. In fact, he only played for their youth team.

In 2016 Nuttall was grilled over his LinkedIn page which seemed to imply that he had a PhD, though he in fact never completed his doctoral studies. Nuttall said the page "wasn't put up by us and we don't know where it's come from".

Nuttall has also been accused of election fraud in recent weeks after submitting nomination papers that included an address he has since admitted he was not living in at the time.

Here are IBTimes UK's favourite tweets of the morning:

The #askpaulnuttall trend bears a resemblance to Twitter reactions to Kellyanne Conway's claims about the so-called "Bowling Green Massacre" – which never took place.

Meanwhile Ukip donor and Leave.EU co-founder Aaron Banks came to Nuttall's defence on Twitter but caused outrage by saying that he was "sick to death" of hearing about Hillsborough. He added: "It was a disaster and that's it, not some sort of cultural happening".

When challenged about his remarks he accused his detractors of "milking a tragedy forever" before saying: "It was the 80s. I've been at some matches that were squeezed beyond belief. This could have happened anywhere anytime.

Hillsborough campaigner Charlotte Hennessey replied: "It was a completely preventable disaster caused by gross negligence that resulted in 96 people unlawfully killed. Actually."

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