A snowballing artists’ boycott of the Hay Festival has led it to end a long-standing partnership with Baillie Gifford which has been criticised for its investments in fossil fuels and Israel.
On Friday the literary festival said that it was suspending its sponsorship with the investment management firm “in light of claims raised by campaigners and intense pressure on artists to withdraw”.
Charlotte Church and Nish Kumar had been the latest artists to withdraw from planned appearances at the festival, and the lengthy boycott list also includes the Labour politicians Baroness Chakrabarti and Dawn Butler.
The investment company, which is a sponsor of ten literary festivals in Britain as well as a renowned book prize, has been under pressure from activists since last year’s Edinburgh
