Shareholders have been urged to vote down plans to pay a water company boss stripped of her bonus an even bigger annual ‘allowance’.

United Utilities sparked outrage over plans to pay chief executive Louise Beardmore an extra £435,000 in shares a year, after she was stripped of a bonus of £417,000 over deadly sewage levels.

Shareholders vote on the new executive pay policy at the annual general meeting on July 17.

But advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services has told investors that they should reject the proposals, warning that the allowance ‘substantially increases guaranteed remuneration’.

The group added: ‘The changes have the effect of insulating pay from performance, to a degree.’