A prominent UKIP donor has accused Hillsborough campaigners of ‘milking a tragedy forever’.
Arron Banks made the remarks in the wake of the party’s leader Paul Nuttall admitting that claims he had lost close friends in the disaster were false.
The multi-millionaire donated £1 million to UKIP and pledged a further £7.5m to the ‘Leave’ campaign for last year’s referendum on the European Union.
Last year, an inquest ruled that the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives were unlawfully killed in April 1989.
I’m sick to death of hearing about it. It was a disaster and that’s it, not some sort of cultural happening https://t.co/KTJPosOGDo
— Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) February 14, 2017
But in a series of posts on Twitter, Banks responded to Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade and others about about Nuttall’s concession on Hillsborough.
“I’m sick to death of hearing about it,” he wrote.
“It was a disaster and that’s it, not some sort of cultural happening.”
No milking a tragedy forever is sick https://t.co/t1AHg6WJqb
— Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) February 14, 2017
Replying again to Reade, he added: “Milking a tragedy forever is sick”.
Nuttall acknowledged on Tuesday that claims published on his official website in 2011 and 2012 that he lost ‘close personal friends’ at Hillsborough were untrue.
His press secretary Lynda Roughley offered her resignation for the statements but that has since been rejected by the Bootle-born politician.