Celtic director Lord Livingston voted in favour of the Tories to cut tax credits, a position fans say is at odds with the club's ethos
Celtic fans have launched a petition to remove a director from their club for voting in favour of tax credit cuts.
Lord Livingston, a non-executive director of Celtic FC, is a former BT chief executive and is known to have been one of the few peers to have voted to push through with the cuts.
As they stand, the proposed changes to tax credits will hit those on low incomes hardest with many working and non-working families losing thousands of pounds a year.
Now nearly 5,000 people are supporting a petition for the Celtic director to be removed from the club’s board.
If our history and heritage, as well as our ongoing involvement in anti-poverty initiatives are to mean anything, Livingston must be removed
The petition, which has an initial target of 60,000 signatures, says that Lord Livingston’s stance is incompatible with a club whose original mission was to help feed the poor in the east end of Glasgow.
It adds: “This work continues today with the ongoing efforts of the Celtic Foundation. We find it hypocritical that Lord Livingston is considered a part of this club and wish him to be removed from the board of directors."
Livingston quit BT to take up his ministerial role in June and was made a life peer taking the title Baron Livingston of Parkhead.
Livingston is married with a son, a daughter. He was brought up in the affluent Kelvinside district of Glasgow and now lives in Hertfordshire.
Charlie McGuire, a supporter who is supporting the campaign on the Ipetitions site, said: “Celtic FC was founded to alleviate poverty in the east end of Glasgow.
“The Tory welfare reform bill is designed to hit the lowest paid workers and poorest families in this country.
“It is unconscionable that this privileged Lord, who has never known poverty, and who voted for this legislation, should be allowed to remain on the board.
“If our history and heritage, as well as our ongoing involvement in anti-poverty initiatives are to mean anything, he must be removed.”
