One of Britain’s most powerful fund managers has slammed Mitchells & Butlers, one of the UK’s biggest pubs groups, for poor corporate governance and lack of boardroom diversity — reigniting a long-running shareholder conflict.

Aberdeen Standard Investments has taken the unusual step of publicly criticising Mitchells & Butlers, which operates more than 1,800 pubs. It also revealed it voted against the re-election of chair Bob Ivell at the company’s general meeting, held in Birmingham on January 22.