AVIVA suffered a major shareholder revolt after more than half of the votes at its annual meeting failed to back the insurer’s pay awards.

The defeat came despite chief executive Andrew Moss waiving a 4.8% pay rise, which would have taken his annual salary over the £1m mark.

Some 50% of votes placed outside the meeting went against the pay report, while another 9% were withheld, in one of the biggest ever shareholder protest votes.