Northern Rock’s board has been forced to sit up and take notice of the stance adopted by two hedge fund shareholders after about two-thirds of the votes cast at today’s extraordinary meeting backed their proposals to limit the power of the stricken lender’s board.

RAB Capital and SRM were left vindicated by the vote in Newcastle today, despite the fact that just one of the four proposals submitted in December was passed at the meeting. All four received the backing of roughly two-thirds of the votes cast at today’s meeting, despite the fact that Northern Rock’s board had earlier “strongly” argued the motions were not in the best interests of the company.