Baillie Gifford’s sponsorship of the Hay Literary Festival was cancelled as the organisers feared it might have led to “disruption and physical intimidation” for attendees, the company has revealed.
This prompted Baillie Gifford to exit its sponsorship of the Edinburgh Book festival and subsequently review its arrangements with the Cheltenham Literary Festival and the Borders Book festival.
Several protest groups were unhappy that Baillie Gifford was sponsoring such events due to alleged links to the fossil fuel industry.
And due to the company’s investments in Israel a different protest group has now got involved.
James Budden, head of retail distribution at the firm said: “There has been a number of campaigns led by activists against us.
"One is called Fossil fuel books and the other is Authors for Gaza. They seem to believe the issue of climate change and the terrible tragedy in Gaza are linked causes, but I find it hard to find such a link.
"The hay festival cancelled the sponsorship because they were genuinely afraid of intimidation due to our sponsorship, and also said our involvement would be financially ruinous for them.
"When they cancelled the pressure went on to the Edinburgh book festival and our sponsorship there. We have sponsored that since 2010 when RBS stopped sponsoring it for obvious reasons. They didn’t want the disruption so walked away. Same with Cheltenham and with the Borders [festivals].”
He added: “I can’t see what benefit has come to the climate or to the people of Gaza as a result of these changes. The only tangible outcome is a reduction in funding for the arts, but maybe lessons will be learned in future.”
Baillie Gifford had previously encountered negative publicity when the climate activist Greta Thunberg withdrew from an event associated with the Edinburgh Book festival as a result of Baillie Gifford’s involvement in the latter.
At that time, the company pointed out that it has less than 3 per cent of its over £200bn of assets invested in fossil fuel companies, which is below the global benchmark.
Baillie Gifford's total assets under management was £230bn at the end of the first quarter of 2024.
david.thorpe@ft.com
