Sir Stuart Rose survived a bruising encounter with Marks & Spencer’s investors yesterday, but only after suffering the biggest revolt of his tenure.

About 38 per cent of shareholders backed a proposal for the company to split Sir Stuart’s executive chairman role into conventional chairman and chief executive positions ahead of schedule, while 21 per cent refused to support his reappointment.

Sir Stuart claimed victory after yesterday’s annual meeting. He said: “They’ve got an opinion. We’ve got an opinion. We won. End of story.”

However, the proposal won record support for a shareholder resolution at a FTSE 100 annual meeting, according to Manifest, the proxy voting agency.

Before the vote, Ian Greenwood, chairman of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which tabled the resolution calling on the chairman and chief executive roles to be split, told shareholders: “Being the most trusted brand in Britain adds responsibility. The fact that you feel able to break so persistently, so obviously one of the tenets of the code \ gives other people the licence to do so.”

For the second year running, more than 20 per cent of M&S shareholders refused to back Sir Stuart’s re-election as executive chairman. About 14 per cent withheld their votes, while 7 per cent voted against his reappointment.

Investors also criticised Sir David Michels, who angered some institutions by saying that he would like to become chairman of M&S while also handling succession planning. More than 10 per cent voted against his re-election. A further 4 per cent abstained.

Peter Montagnon, director of investment affairs at the Association of British Insurers, whose members own about 15 per cent of the stock market, said: “Investors have long had concerns about succession planning at M&S, and this vote shows the board needs to do more to reassure them about its approach.”

M&S annual meetings are traditionally a jamboree for mainly retired private shareholders. Sir Stuart regaled the 1,900 people at the Royal Festival Hall in Central London with his customary salesman’s patter and faced questions ranging from the selection of men’s shorts to the availability of thermal underwear. One investor asked why the toilets in the Weston-

super-Mare store were so poor. “There were better toilets when I was in the British Navy, in the back streets of Hong Kong in 1962,” he said. Sir Stuart said that the toilets would be improved in “double-quick time”.

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