Bonus rebuke for advertising chief

Advertising boss Sir Martin Sorrell suffered a major rebuke yesterday in one of the biggest pay revolts of the current “shareholder spring”.

Some 59.5 per cent of proxy investor votes went against WPP’s remuneration report, which includes a £6.8m package for Sir Martin, which he has defended as a reward for “performance, not failure”.

The vote, revealed at WPP’s annual meeting in Dublin, is not binding and will not force WPP to reset its pay policy for last year.

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Louise Rouse, director of engagement at investment campaigner FairPensions, who attended the meeting, said: “It is difficult to know whether the WPP board underestimated the level of shareholder anger or simply chose to ignore it.”

WPP owns dozens of companies including public relations firm Ogilvy, communications agency RLM Finsbury and market research firm Kantar Worldpanel.

The backlash follows months of shareholder anger over executive pay with the likes of Aviva, Trinity Mirror and Barclays all facing significant votes against their pay reports.

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