Clinton Cards apologised yesterday after it was forced to pull a “vile” Christmas card that denigrated people who live on council estates.

The company’s “Council Estate Santa Claus Christmas card” was taken off the company’s website after it was inundated with criticism on social media.

The offending article listed “10 reasons why Santa must have lived in a council estate” starting with “a serial record of breaking and entering” and “he only works once a year.”

Facing a furious backlash from council tenants, a Clintons spokesman said: “This was a mistake and we deeply regret the upset that this has clearly caused.

“It is in no way reflective of our views and we apologise without reservation.”

The spokesman said the card had been withdrawn from sale and promised an investigation into the company’s quality control methods.

But council tenants told the Star the damage had already been done.

East London council estate tenant Milly Wild said: “I think a lot of that attitude is used to justify what is happening at the moment to people who don’t have much money.

“Council tenants are portrayed as thieves and scum and then this is used to justify a lot of the measures against poor people that are going through — evictions, benefit cuts, wage cuts.”

Ms Wild added that mocking people who are strapped for cash in this particularly “anxious” time of the year was cruel.

Another tenant living in Blenheim Gardens estate in Brixton said: “I’m disgusted by Clinton Cards’ ‘funny’ Christmas message.

“Maybe Clinton Cards should concentrate on paying their staff a living wage which might mean less of them would have to claim benefits, rather than abusing people for where they live,” he added.

Clintons job listings for temporary Christmas workers currently advertises salaries of between £4.96 and £6.50 an hour.

The Living Wage in Britain is currently set at a minimum of £7.85.

Lisa McKenzie, author of Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain, argued the card was particularly bad due to its class prejudice.

“Sadly it is not an isolated example — it feeds directly into the vile rhetoric that successive politicians have given green lights to in their sustained attacks on working-class people.

“We have been reduced to figures of hate through the ‘chav’ and underclass rhetoric, but also to figures of ridicule in the ways working-class people and culture are constantly undermined and rubbished.

“A clear message needs to be sent class prejudice will not be tolerated.”

The the author called on the company to prove it’s sorry by making a donation to a local foodbank.