Paul Nuttall, the Ukip leader, has denied that he has lied about being a Hillsborough survivor after a number of people questioned his claim to have been present on the day of the disaster.

He claims to have been present, along with his father and two uncles, when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death, and has said only “scum of the earth” would suggest this was not true.

After he added in a newspaper interview last weekend that he did not like to talk about the disaster, the Hillsborough Families Support Group questioned why he had never offered any support, while others who knew him at the time say they have no recollection of him saying he was present during the disaster.

With these questions being raised, Ukip gave the Guardian two statements on behalf of Nuttall, one from his father and another from a Ukip employee, saying that they and Nuttall had been at Hillsborough on the day of the disaster.

The statement from Nuttall’s father gave an incorrect age for his son at the time of the 1989 disaster.

The statements appear to raise further questions for Nuttall, who is contesting the Stoke Central byelection for Ukip on 23 February.

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He declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about the matter. His parents have not responded to a request that they speak to the Guardian.Nuttall first publicly claimed to have been at Hillsborough in a letter to the Liverpool Daily Post in July 2010. He raised the matter again in May last year, saying during an interview on the BBC’s Politics Show North West that he had been in the overcrowded Leppings Lane end of the ground.

He told his interviewer that he thought police officers responsible for the disaster should be prosecuted. “I think people should carry the can for their actions,” he said.

Nuttall was 12 at the time of the disaster, and was a pupil at Savio high school in Bootle, Liverpool. One of his former teachers, a Roman Catholic priest, has told the Guardian that the school had believed it was aware of the identities of every boy who had been at Hillsborough, in order to help them through a difficult period, and that Nuttall was not among them.

A fellow pupil at the school who says he has been a friend of Nuttall for decades, said the Ukip leader had not once mentioned being there. “I have been very good friends with Paul for over 25 years,” he said, adding that during that time they had “never spoken” about Hillsborough.

While the teacher and friend expressed surprise that Nuttall says he was at Hillsborough, their comments do not prove that he was not present.

Joe Benton, who was Labour MP for Bootle for 25 years, said that to the best of his knowledge Nuttall had not mentioned Hillsborough when he stood against him, for Ukip, in the 2005 and 2010 general elections.

Nuttall had not mentioned being present at Hillsborough during any public meeting they had both attended, nor in his campaign literature, Benton said, despite the strength of feeling within the constituency about the police negligence that led to the deaths, and the subsequent official cover-up that led to Liverpool fans being blamed for the disaster.

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The current Labour MP, Peter Dowd, said that as far as he was aware, Nuttall had not mentioned Hillsborough when he contested Bootle for Ukip in the 2015 general election.

The mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: “If Nuttall was [at Hillsborough] then it is extremely disappointing that during many years of pain and anguish for the families, he never once used his position nationally and internationally to stand up for people from his own community and join the fight for justice.”

Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, said she was surprised that Nuttall had never offered to assist with their decades-long campaign to overturn the cover-up that led to Liverpool football fans being blamed for the 96 deaths.

“I haven’t heard anything about him being at the match,” she said. “Has he given a statement to the police, who have said they want to hear from everyone who was there? He can’t say he hasn’t heard that the police want to take statements from everyone who was in the Leppings Lane, as it’s been all over local and national media.”

Nuttall declined to explain why he had not offered his support to the group. He also declined to say whether he had given a statement to the police who are currently investigating events on the day of the disaster.

He further declined to offer any comment about the way in which a former teacher and old school friend said he had never mentioned being at Hillsborough; nor about the way in which he appears not to have mentioned being present at the disaster while fighting three general elections in a Liverpool constituency.

Nuttall, a member of the European parliament for eight years, also declined to say whether he had ever sought to have the parliament debate any of the issues arising out of the disaster.

In response to the questions, Ukip issued a statement that said Nuttall was the victim of a smear campaign sanctioned by senior members of the Labour party.

Any claim that he was not at Hillsborough was “totally false and highly defamatory”, the statement said, adding: “Paul was indeed at Hillsborough. He attended the match with his father and other family members. For political opponents to suggest otherwise and for left-wing media organisations to promote such claims constitutes a new low for the Labour party and its associates.”

Ukip produced two statements. The statement from Nuttall’s father begins: “I am and always have been the father of Paul Nuttall, leader of the UK Independence party.” It goes on to state that Nuttall had been 13 years old at the time of the disaster. He was actually 12.

The second statement is said to be from a Ukip official at the European parliament. This said that the two men had been friends for 35 years and were both at Hillsborough.

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Last week, Nuttall told the Ukip-supporting Sunday Express that he had been at the match with his father and two uncles, and that after being caught in a crush outside the stadium they had entered the upper tier at Leppings Lane. Only “scum of the earth” would say otherwise.

It is not the first time that claims made by Nuttall, or made on his behalf, have been questioned by others.

Staffordshire police have said they are investigating an allegation of election fraud after Nuttall’s nomination papers for the Stoke Central byelection gave an address in the city at which he subsequently admitted he was not living. Knowingly providing false information on a nomination paper is an offence punishable by up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment. Ukip said all rules had been complied with.

Nuttall’s personal website has carried the claim that he had once been a professional footballer with Tranmere Rovers. After Rovers stated that he had been a member of its youth side, but never a professional, Nuttall blamed his website’s statement on a Ukip press officer.

Until late last year, Nuttall’s profile page on the LinkedIn social networking site implied that he had a PhD. He did not complete his doctoral studies, however. Challenged about this, Nuttall insisted that the LinkedIn page “wasn’t put up by us, and we don’t know where it’s come from”. The page was subsequently edited to remove any reference to a PhD.

In 2015, while Ukip’s education spokesperson, Nuttall appeared in a photograph that was found to have been digitally altered to give the impression that he was standing in a library. Nuttall responded by joking that he had two copies of each of his books.

He is currently among six Ukip members of the European parliament who are under investigation for alleged misuse of funds. If they are found to have broken the rules, they will be expected to pay the money, which totals around £500,000.

Ukip rejects the allegations, saying it has “scrupulously applied” the rules of the European parliament.