Paul Nuttall’s website taken offline after Ukip leader criticised over posts wrongly claiming he lost ‘close personal friends’ in the Hillsborough disaster
Just a week away from polling day in hotly contested Stoke by-election he is facing calls to resign as an MEP
PAUL Nuttall's website has been taken offline after he faced criticism over posts which wrongly claimed he lost “close personal friends” in the Hillsborough disaster.
Just a week away from polling day in the hotly contested by-election in Stoke-on-Trent, the Ukip leader is now facing calls to resign as an MEP.
He was also branded a "coward" after a party press officer offered to take the blame over the posts.
Mr Nuttall has apologised over the claim, carried on his official website for at least six years, after he was forced to admit it was wrong during a live radio interview.
This morning a message on paulnuttallmep.com said the site was offline for "scheduled maintenance".
But the furore shows no sign of abating with Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson calling on him to "explain himself to the people of Liverpool".
He told the : "It's not the press officer who should be offering their resignation, it should be Paul Nuttall offering his resignation as a candidate, never mind for what party."
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Meanwhile Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron branded Mr Nuttall a "disgrace", telling the : "You cannot believe a word that comes out of his mouth.
"And every time he gets caught making things up, he just blames it on the office junior. The man is a disgrace."
Mr Nuttall has stood by his account that he was at the stadium when tragedy struck on April 15 1989.
However families of some of the 96 Liverpool fans who died in the disaster have voiced their anger at the false claim that he lost close personal friends.
Hillsborough Family Support Group chairwoman Margaret Aspinall told LBC radio: "A lot of people who were there that day did lose close personal friends and I think it's an insult to them as well as to all the families who did lose somebody on that day."
Mr Nuttall apologised on Tuesday for the claim - contained in at least two press releases on his website - after being challenged during an interview with Radio City Talk in Liverpool.
He told presenter Dave Easton: "I haven't lost a close personal friend, I've lost someone who I know. I haven't put that out, that is wrong."
On Tuesday Ukip press officer Lynda Roughley said she was "entirely responsible" for the website post and had offered her resignation.
A Ukip spokesman said on Wednesday that the resignation had been rejected, adding: "Obviously Paul is grateful for her offer, but what sort of chap would he be to say her career is dead for what seems to be a minor error six years ago?"