If he is intending to cause maximum offence and upset, he is doing a good job.
First there was UKIP leader Paul Nuttall’s admission that claims on his website that he’d “lost a close personal friend” during the Hillsborough disaster were false.
Then the blame was shifted to press officer Lynda Roughley, who resigned over the falsehood.
We should have known it was a lie when Paul Nuttall claimed he had a friend. #jft96 pic.twitter.com/ijLdcWWLG9
— Ben Claimant 💚 Join a Union (@BenClaimant) February 14, 2017
Now major UKIP donor and Leave.eu founder Arron Banks has upset and angered many with his comments about the disaster. He stated on Tuesday night that he was ‘sick to death’ of hearing about it, and that it wasn’t a ‘cultural happening’.
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
When questioned over his insensitive comments about what happened on April 15, 1989 and the 96 lives that were lost, his response was to suggest people had been ‘milking’ it ever since.
No milking a tragedy forever is sick https://t.co/t1AHg6WJqb
— Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) February 14, 2017
Then he went as far as calling it an ‘accident’ – something that Hillborough campaigners have been fighting against for 28 years.
It was an awful accident at a football ground , that's it. https://t.co/50NniGeluO
— Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) February 14, 2017
To double-up on his offensive standpoint, he had the temerity to state: ‘…sometimes life is unfair and accidents happen.’
People hysterical and to be frank it's about people realised that sometimes life is unfair and accidents happen https://t.co/ED4ZsQHpkd
— Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) February 14, 2017
Our own Tony Barrett spoke for many with his summary of Banks’ comments:
Your leader gets caught lying about something huge so what do you do? You pretend what he's lying about doesn't really matter. https://t.co/m5cmdaRnPD
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarrett) February 14, 2017
