Paul Nuttall has been asking baffled friends if they remember that time he told them about being at Hillsborough.

The UKIP leader has been contacting old acquaintances and recounting obscure incidents from their shared past as if they are fond memories rather than episodes they have tried to forget, before adding: “And that time I told you I’d been at Hillsborough – that happened too, didn’t it?”

One old school friend replied: “No mate. I remember when you called me a Paki, though.”

Another said: “Did you? Oh, okay,” but hesitated when Mr Nuttall asked him to sign an affidavit, responding: “Look, I’ve got to go, Paul. I’ve left a fork in the knife draw.”

So far Mr Nuttall is understood to have found one person willing to sign the affidavit but was escorted from the care home before pen could be put to paper.

Ray Doyle, 91, a former teacher of Mr Nuttall’s, told Swan Bake: “Yes, I remember Paul saying he’d been at Hillsborough.

“Is he my father?”