CELTIC director Lord Ian Livingston has named and shamed those who subjected him to racist abuse after voting in support of tax credit cuts in the House of Lords.

Glasgow-born former BT chief executive Lord Livingston angered some Celtic supporters by siding with the Conservatives when he voted against delays to Chancellor Osborne’s tax credit changes.

A petition calling for him to be sacked from the Celtic board has now received more than 10,000 signatures.

 

Despite that he was reappointed to his role after being voted back in at the Celtic AGM on Friday.

The meeting became heated and controversy was sparked after chairman Ian Bankier branded some abuse received by his fellow board member from some fans online as "criminally racist".

Livingston has defended his stance, saying he believes there needs to be tax credit proposal changes but felt it was not the unelected Second Chamber's role to stand in the way.

Now he has made a statement on the Affiliation of Registered Celtic Supporters' Clubs website forum raising concerns about anti-semitic abuse directed at him.

 

"I hope you don’t mind me posting this," he wrote. "As the person about whom a number of abusive comments were made, I thought you may be interested in a couple of the racist ones so you can perhaps see why the chairman was upset about them.

“M*****l H*****s: Get this Ashkenazi c**t out of OUR club and take that other fake jew p***k Biton with him. This is typical of their sort, infiltrating and destroying every country and establisment (sic) from within.

"Or someone under the name R**s G***t saying. 'He’s a Jew what do you expect'.

"Many others were simply abusive. Not I assume anything to do with my religion rather because I had a different political view.

"Actually I wasn’t in agreement with the nature of the tax credit cuts but believed that this motion was not something the unelected House of Lords should do, so voted against it.

"No doubt some will disagree but you might consider the nature of expressing your view and whether abuse is also in line with your view of Celtic’s ethos.

"I have always believed Celtic fans are the best in the world and a few racist postings of social media will not change that as I know the overwhelming of fans whichever party the vote for would codemn (sic) them equally."

Several Celtic fans groups have called for Ian Bankier to consider his position following his remarks about the abuse by some fans when he came to the defence of Livingston at the club's annual general meeting on Friday.

The Affiliation of Registered Celtic Supporters' Clubs, the Celtic Trust and the Green Brigade released a joint statement expressing their anger over Bankier's comments, which they branded "disgraceful remarks".

Many of those supporting the campaign to have Lord Livingston removed pointed out that the club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigrant Irish population in the east end of Glasgow.

The row erupted after the UK Government was dealt a major blow when the unelected Upper Chamber voted to delay tax credit cuts and to compensate those affected in full.

The Herald:

Peers voted by 289 votes to 272 to provide full financial redress to the millions of recipients affected, but Livingston, who is a non-executive director of Celtic FC, was on the losing side of that vote. Peers also inflicted a second defeat by backing a pause until an independent study of the impact was carried out.

George Osborne said he would heed the outcome of the vote, but said it raised "constitutional issues" over the House of Lords defying the will of an elected House of Commons.

Livingston quit BT in 2013 and was appointed Trade and Investment Minister as a surprise replacement for the former HSBC chairman Lord Green. He joined the House of Lords prior to his ministerial appointment.

Livingston, who took the title Baron Livingston of Parkhead, broke his silence over the issue online after receiving vicious criticism.