Activists stormed Aviva’s annual general meeting in York on Wednesday, chanting and shouting outside the boardroom as they accused the insurer of underwriting and investing in companies that profit from migrant detention, surveillance, fossil fuels and the weapons trade. Twelve individuals, all claiming to hold shares in Aviva, were escorted or carried out of the building by security, delaying the start of the meeting. The group behind the disruption, Boycott Bloody Insurance (BBI), said the protest was designed to expose what it called a “sham” of ethical business practice.
BBI alleges that Aviva insures more migrant detention and surveillance contractors than any other company in the UK, with business links to operators such as Serco and G4S, which run detention centres. The group also claims the insurer underwrites oil majors including Saudi Aramco, Shell and BP, and holds investments in PetroChina, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies. On weapons, BBI points to Aviva’s ties with Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems — coverage that Aviva and Allianz reportedly ended at the close of 2025 following earlier protest action. Yet BBI insists the company retains investment connections with Elbit. A March 2025 report by the campaign group identified Aviva as the largest investor among examined insurers in companies that supplied military equipment to Israel after the October 2023 attacks, accounting for more than half of the total identified investments, including $345 million in BAE Systems. “Aviva likes to present itself as an ethical business, but when you look at the companies it supports, that turns out to be a sham,” said Andrew Taylor, a campaigner with BBI. The group is calling for Aviva to be stripped of its ethical accreditations and for organisations to boycott its products.
Aviva declined to comment on the protests. The shareholder meeting did go ahead, however, with 8.4 per cent of votes cast against the motion to approve the company’s climate-related financial disclosures for 2025 and 5.5 per cent against approval of the directors’ pay policy. Chief executive Dame Amanda Blanc took home a total pay packet of £9.76 million last year. According to the company’s filings, she received £7.2 million in 2024 — including a £2.2 million annual bonus and £3.7 million in long-term share awards — down slightly from £7.3 million in 2023. Her basic salary was set to rise by 10 per cent in 2025, compared with 4.2 per cent for the wider workforce. Aviva said the rise was necessary to keep her pay competitive in the UK and European markets. Depending on share price performance, she could earn up to £10.4 million in 2025. Aviva itself says it aims to be a net-zero company by 2040 and has been carbon neutral in its operations since 2006. It reports having reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions from a portion of its investments by 59 per cent since 2019, uses 100 per cent renewable electricity, and had invested approximately £10.5 billion in green assets by the end of 2025.
NatWest AGM halted amid climate dispute
Wednesday’s disruption follows a similar scene at NatWest’s annual general meeting a week earlier, where climate activists forced a half‑hour halt. Protesters sang and made statements accusing the banking group of backtracking on its climate commitments. Shareholder activists specifically claimed NatWest had “reduced the ambition of its fossil fuel policy and climate targets”, including lifting a ban on working with oil and gas majors that lack transition plans aligned with the Paris Agreement and removing restrictions on financing fossil‑fuel exploration and production companies outside the UK. Rick Haythornthwaite, NatWest’s chairman, defended the bank’s policies, telling the meeting that financing of oil and gas amounts to only 0.6 per cent of total lending. He insisted the overwhelming balance of investments sits in renewables and decarbonisation, and said climate targets have not been abandoned. NatWest aims to halve the climate impact of its financing activities by 2030 against a 2019 baseline and reach net zero by 2050. It has also set a £100 billion climate and sustainable funding target by the end of 2025 and a new £200 billion target by 2030. A group of 16 investors managing $1.38 trillion in assets — including the Church of England Pensions Board and Greater Manchester Pension Fund — backed a statement criticising the policy changes, with the Church of England Pensions Board stating its intention to oppose the chair’s reappointment. Haythornthwaite himself has faced scrutiny over his former role with PetroSaudi, an oil group involved in the 1MDB financial scandal, and has previously held leadership roles at BP, Premier Oil and MasterCard.
Barclays faces protest at Thursday’s AGM
Barclays is expected to be the next target. Activist groups including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Campaign Against Arms Trade have organised a protest outside the bank’s annual general meeting in London on Thursday. They accuse Barclays of bankrolling what they describe as Israel’s “genocide, military occupation and apartheid” by providing investment and loans worth more than £8 billion to arms companies supplying Israel. A May 2024 report detailed the bank’s financial ties to nine weapons producers used by Israel, noting an increase in those ties. Protesters also highlight Barclays’ agreement with Israel to act as a primary dealer for its government bonds, directly helping the country raise money, as well as its investments in companies such as Shell. Barclays has responded by saying it recognises the profound human suffering in Gaza and that its share trading in defence companies is carried out in response to client instruction or demand, not direct investment.
The UK remains Europe’s most active market for shareholder activism, with a 44 per cent year-on-year increase in targeted companies between September 2024 and August 2025. BBI’s campaign targets a handful of insurers — Aviva, AIG, AXA and Allianz — for what it argues is their role in sustaining the fossil-fuel economy and other harmful industries by absorbing corporate risk. Past campaigns have forced insurers to drop coverage of projects including the TMX pipeline, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and Adani’s Carmichael coal mine.
