FTSE 100 miner Rio Tinto has been forced to defend itself over its remuneration, corporate governance and climate change policies at a testy annual general meeting in London.

Proxy adviser Glass Lewis advised shareholders to vote against Rio’s pay report for 2017, in protest at the miner awarding bonuses to senior bosses in a year when it suffered two fatalities.

Rio boss Jean Sebastien Jacques told shareholders “safety and health is the number one” priority for the company, while newly appointed chairman Simon Thompson defended the miner’s new pay policy, which goes to a binding vote this year, saying disagreement among shareholders prevented it from implementing a more “innovative” pay scheme.

Rio also faced down charges it was favouring one set of shareholders over another, after refusing to allow British investors a vote on a resolution demanding that it reveals payments to lobbying groups that back fossil fuels.

Shareholders in Rio’s Australian company will get a vote on two extra resolutions at its AGM in Melbourne on May 2.