A PETITION calling for the Dean of York to lose her job has been called “malicious, offensive and misconceived” by a Minster spokesman.

A group of supporters, who wanted a York burial for Richard III, were angered by references to Leicester in last week’s Richard III commemorations at York Minster.

They are demanding the Dean of York, the Very Rev Vivienne Faull, stands down.

The Dean spoke at evensong on Thursday to honour Richard III on the same day he was reinterred in Leicester.

But some supporters of the Yorkist king, claimed that Leicester, where the Dean previously worked, featured too heavily in her address, walked out of the service.

The petition, which has about 130 signatures, says the service was ruined, and claims it is untenable to have a Dean who they say promotes her previous cathedral at the Minster.

A spokesman for the Minster supported the Dean, condemning the petition as “malicious, offensive and misconceived”.

Roy Thompson, who gave a reading at the service on Thursday, has also spoken up for the Dean.

Mr Thompson, who is church warden of Sheriff Hutton church, where Richard’s young son is believed to be buried, said the petition was an overreaction.

He said it sprang from very strong feeling among Richard III supporters in York.

Ardent Ricardians at the Minster service had taken it as a “snub” or a “provocation” that the Dean chose to speak about Leicester, he said.

Mr Thompson said: “I don’t think it was intended as a provocation.

“I don’t think this petition is justified in the words it has used.”

A Minster spokesman said that, after the lengthy legal fight over King Richard’s bones, there is no basis for the claims he should have been buried in York.

The spokesman said: “The location for King Richard III’s reburial in Leicester was decided by the Ministry of Justice.

“A three-judge High Court hearing in London reviewed all the issues raised by those unhappy with this decision, at length and in definitive and comprehensive detail.

“The High Court ruled unanimously that the Ministry of Justice had acted correctly throughout the licence-issuing process, and that there was no legal justification for the court to overturn the reburial licence.

“There is absolutely no justification for this petition, and it is highly regrettable that the Dean of York has been subjected to these malicious, offensive and misconceived comments.”