POLICE are to speak to Lord Livingston over allegations he was subjected to racist abuse online after voting in support of tax credit cuts in the House of Lords.

It has been confirmed police are to act proactively in talking to the Celtic director after he named and shamed those who subjected him to abuse after siding with the Conservatives when he voted against delays to Chancellor Osborne’s tax credit changes.

Ian Bankier, the Celtic chairman, condemned what he described as the “criminally racist abuse” of Lord Livingston, the non-executive director at the AGM.

The Herald: Ian Bankier, the Celtic chairmanIan Bankier, the Celtic chairman

An online petition demanding that Lord Livingston be removed from his position was launched last month and has been supported by more than 10,000 people.

Lord Livingston 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.

Mr Bankier, who was heckled when he expressed his personal disappointment that the vote on the Glasgow-born former BT chief executive’s re-election had gone to a poll, hit out at the “highly personal campaign” against the Conservative peer. Lord Livingston was reappointed to his role after being voted back in at the Celtic AGM on Friday.

“Ian has been subjected to a torrent of utterly base personal abuse conducted over social media in recent weeks," said Mr Bankier. "The messages posted in quite a few cases are criminally racist and in all cases the vocabulary chosen is base and highly abusive. What sickens me to the core is that the campaign is conducted in the name of Brother Walfrid.”

The Herald: Brother WalfridBrother Walfrid

The club was formally constituted at a meeting by Brother Walfrid on November 6, 1887, with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the east end of Glasgow by raising money for the charity he had instituted, the Poor Children's Dinner Table.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "We have not received a report regarding this however officers will be making contact with Lord Livingston regarding the matter. We need to get in contact with him to find out what has happened."

Police are to take action after the peer made a statement on the Affiliation of Registered Celtic Supporters' Clubs website forum raising concerns about anti-semitic abuse directed at him.

The Herald:

"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.

The Herald:

"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 Lord Livingston at the club's annual general meeting on Friday.

Peers voted by 289 votes to 272 to provide full financial redress to the millions of recipients affected, but Lord Livingston 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.

The Herald:

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.