Ukip leader Paul Nuttall has said a claim on his personal website that he lost close personal friends in the Hillsborough disaster is false.

Mr Nuttall, who says he attended the fateful FA Cup match, was questioned during a radio interview about his account of the 1989 disaster that claimed 96 lives.

He denied writing the claim on his website, telling Liverpool station Radio City Talk: "I haven't put that out, that is wrong."

He added: "I haven't lost a close personal friend, I've lost someone who I know."

The passage was included in a 2011 entry in which Mr Nuttall called for the Government to release files on Hillsborough.

He was quoted as writing: "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."

Mr Nuttall also hit out at a report in The Guardian which questioned whether he had attended the game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April, 1989.

In the interview with radio presenter Dave Easson he compared The Guardian's article to the notorious coverage in The Sun following the Hillsborough disaster.

"What's happening to me now, in many ways, is a national newspaper is doing precisely what happened to the people there on the day," he said.

"When The Sun told those lies, I've now got The Guardian doing precisely the same to me."

He told reporters on Monday he had provided two written statements to the newspaper and could "provide more" but accused the publication of having "twisted" the story.

He previously said he was "hurt, angry and disgusted" by the Guardian article, which quoted Mr Nuttall's childhood friend and a former teacher.

Neither could recall him ever mentioning he had been at the stadium disaster.

The paper also carried a quote from the Hillsborough Family Support Group questioning why he had not offered any support.

Mr Nuttall, who would have been 12 at the time of the disaster, has said he was at the match with his father and two uncles.