POLICE officers have spoken to Celtic director Lord Livingston and others in connection with allegations he was subjected to racist abuse online.
But it is understood that any formal investigation cannot been pursued yet as there has been no complaint.
Officers took proactive action about the social media attacks which came after Lord Livingston voted in support of tax credit cuts in the House of Lords.
Police Scotland said last month that they were 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 club's annual general meeting.
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 later moved to defend 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.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Officers were in contact with those involved to discuss the matter. However, to date, no complaint has been received by police."
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. Of over 78,366,974 votes cast 99.46 per cent were in favour of his reappointment.
Police decided 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.
"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 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.
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