Ukip leader under fire as two party aides quit

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has ‘questions to answer’ over his claim to be a survivor of the Hillsborough disaster, a justice campaigner said yesterday.

Professor Phil Scraton revealed that Mr Nuttall had been a student at the college where the campaign to uncover the truth about the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans was based – yet never came forward.

The Liverpudlian MEP – who is standing for Parliament in Thursday’s Stoke Central by-election – was last week forced to apologise over false claims on his website that he lost close friends in the tragedy, which took place in 1989 when he was 12.

However, he insisted he had been at the match with his father and two uncles.

The latest challenge came as Mr Nuttall’s by- election campaign received a fresh blow after two Liverpool chairmen of Ukip quit as a result of the party’s ‘crass insensitivity’ over Hillsborough.

Following attacks on Mr Nuttall’s credibility last week, Arron Banks, Ukip’s millionaire backer, caused outrage by saying he was ‘sick to death’ of hearing about Hillsborough, and accused Mr Nuttall’s critics of milking the disaster.

Now Stuart Monkcom, of Mr Nuttall’s branch in Liverpool, and Adam Heatherington, from Merseyside Ukip, have quit in protest. Mr Monkcom said: ‘This unpro-

‘Upsetting and intolerable’

fessional approach from high-profile people closely within and without Ukip is upsetting and intolerable.’

Mr Heatherington told Radio 4’s World At One programme: ‘It was the Arron Banks remarks I cannot put up with.’

The news will embarrass Mr Nuttall as he tries to take Stoke Central from Labour.

But Professor Scraton, whose efforts were instrumental in revealing the truth about what happened at Hillsborough and the resulting police cover-up, urged Mr Nuttall to reveal his full movements on the day of the tragedy. Writing in the Liverpool Echo, he said: ‘He might explain why his family did not volunteer statements to the investigations.’

Professor Scraton said Mr Nuttall never contacted the research unit he headed, despite studying at the same college.

He added: ‘The Hillsborough Project, of which I was the director, was based at what is now Edge Hill University, then a college of higher education.

‘Paul Nuttall studied history at the college. Given the massive publicity our work received, Paul Nuttall could not have failed to know about the project. Yet he never approached us.’

Mr Nuttall’s spokesman said he had no comment about the professor’s article.