Liverpool Mayor calls on Paul Nuttall to resign as MEP for region amid Hillsborough controversy

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The Mayor of Liverpool has called on Paul Nuttall to resign as an MEP for the North West of England after he admitted claims on his website about losing "close personal friends" at Hillsborough were not true.

Joe Anderson said the city "would not tolerate" anyone trying to exploit the tragedy in which 96 Liverpool football fans died after been crushed and trampled in the away end of Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield in 1989.

The Labour politician, who has represented the city since 2012, said Mr Nuttall should "explain himself to the people of Liverpool" rather than seeking to become the new MP for Stoke-on-Trent in the by-election, which is due to be held on 23 February.

Mr Nuttall, who has been Ukip's leader for less than three months after Nigel Farage resigned for the third time, has attracted fierce criticism in recent weeks for claiming he was a Hillsborough survivor – despite a teacher at his school at the time and members of the Hillsborough Family Support Group having no recollection of him attending the match.

He has continued to insist he was there but denied saying he had lost "close personal friends" in the disaster, during an interview with a local Liverpool radio station.

Mr Nuttall, who grew up in Bootle in Liverpool, later clarified that he had lost "someone he knew" in the disaster and that the claim dating from 2011 had been put on his website without his knowledge.

His long-serving press officer, Lynda Roughley, offered to resign over the scandal – taking full responsibility for the claim and saying "Paul is a man of great integrity and would not say something he knew to be untrue".

But Mr Anderson is unconvinced. He told the Guardian: "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.

"This is getting now to a stage where it’s absolutely clear that someone is misleading the British public and this is from a political party that’s supposed to be a serious political party.

"The public deserve to know the truth. If it is true that there are comments, clearly attributable to him, saying that ‘close personal friends’ died at Hillsborough, his position is untenable."