BP has suffered its biggest shareholder protest for at least a decade in a snub that overshadowed an emotional send-off for Lord Browne of Madingley in his final annual general meeting in charge of the oil group today.

Nearly one in five investors - 17 per cent - refused to back BP’s executive renumeration policy amid growing controversy over a bonus scheme for Lord Browne and calls for pay to be linked more closely to safety targets.

The 83 per cent in favour is still far higher than some had been predicting in the build up to today’s meeting in London’s Docklands - the first major AGM of the summer.

However, it’s the lowest number of votes in support of any BP resolution since Lord Browne took charge in 1996.

It came as the 59-year old thanked up to 1,000 shareholders at the meeting for their “support, confidence and patience” in his last address before stepping down in June.

Peter Sutherland, the chairman, added that BP was “reaching the end of a remarkable era”. “John Browne has been an outstanding chief executive,” he said. “I say a heartfelt thank you.”

PIRC, the corporate governance consultancy, and several smaller pension funds had voiced their anger in the build up to BP’s AGM over Lord Browne’s inclusion in a long-term incentive scheme that runs until 2009.

This could see the chief executive pick up around £10 million despite the fact he will only be in charge for little more than two months.

Shareholders have also urged BP to adopt a closer link between pay and health and safety targets following the damning Baker report earlier this year into the fatal Texas City refinery blast in the US.

Speaking at the AGM today, Co-operative Insurance Society spokeswoman Deborah Gillisham called on Mr Sutherland to introduce more “non-financial targets”.

“Such targets should be a core part of renumeration,” she said.

Others attacked BP’s total shareholder return over the past ten years “arguably pathetic” compared with its peers and argued that salaries should have been frozen last year.

Mr Sutherland laughed off the suggestion, insisting BP had to “retain the best” directors in the industry, and his comments were supported by the majority of delegates in the Excel Centre.

One shareholder, Captain Hawker, urged other investors not to forget the transformation of BP under Lord Browne and said he was worth every penny.

He said: “Lord Browne has given a lifetime’s work to BP and his skills are largely why we are so successful. Fellow shareholders, I put it to you we owe Lord Browne.”

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