Watch: Ukip leader "very sorry" for Hillsborough lies

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall has said he is "very sorry" over a false claim that he had lost close personal friends in the Hillsborough disaster.

Mr Nuttall was forced to admit the claim posted on his website was wrong after he was challenged during an interview with Radio City Talk in Liverpool.

In a statement later, Mr Nuttall said he was "appalled" when he found out what had happened but he did not write the web posting:

In an entry on the website dated August 2011, Mr Nuttall called for the government to release files it held on the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

He was then quoted as saying:

Mr Nuttall, who is now standing for Ukip in the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election, has previously hit out over an article in The Guardian which cast doubt on his claim that as a 12-year-old fan he was present in the stadium when the disaster happened.

In his Radio City Talk interview, he compared his treatment by the paper to The Sun's coverage of the disaster which wrongly claimed drunken Liverpool fans were to blame.

The paper quoted two people who knew him, a childhood friend and a former teacher, who could not recall Mr Nuttall ever mentioning he had been at the stadium.

The disclosure of the claim he lost friends in the disaster has angered some among the Hillsborough families.

Barry Devonside, whose son Christopher, 18, was among the victims, said:

Hillsborough Family Support Group chairwoman Margaret Aspinall told LBC radio:

In his statement, Mr Nuttall made clear he stood by his claim to have been at the match.