Clintons has provoked outrage with a festive card on its website that details the 10 reasons Santa Claus “must live on a council estate”.

The classist card, which costs £2, features a picture of a tower block and Father Christmas, with the cover message: “10 reasons Santa Claus must live on a council estate…”

Inside the card the 10 “reasons” Santa Claus apparently lives on a council estate are listed and include such offensive stereotypes as: “He has a serial record for breaking and entering” and “He’s never actually been seen doing any work in his whole life”.

The card has now been withdrawn and a blank page appears when following the original link.

People quickly took to Twitter to voice their disgust at the card. Kerry McCarthy, the Labour MP for Bristol East, wrote: “Wow, this is so wrong.”

While Bob Hudson said: “Add Clintons Cards to your banned list – can scarcely believe this Xmas demonization of social housing tenants.”

Further unpleasant generalisations in the card include: “He drinks alcohol during working hours” and “He can get hold of all the latest designer gear but never pays a penny for it”.

The inside messages concludes, with the single positive note of the card, “Merry Christmas”.

A Clintons spokesman told The Independent: "A card in our range has been withdrawn immediately. It is in no way reflective of our views and we apologise without reservation.

"We are investigating how this offensive card got through our quality control procedures, which we will review and tighten as a result of this incident. This was a mistake and we deeply regret the upset that this has clearly caused."

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Full inside message:

1. He has a serial record for breaking and entering!

2. He uses various animals to pull his sleigh

3. He only works once a year

4. He's never actually been seen doing any work in his whole life

5. He drinks alcohol during working hours

6. He barely leaves his home for fear of being recognised

7. He wears the same, out-of-fashion clothes everyday and never washes them

8. He uses loads of different names and aliases purely for his own gain!

9. He gets letters from a lot of people, all demanding that he owes them things!

10. He can get hold of all the latest designer gear but never pays a penny for it!