A LEADING science festival has become the latest organisation to cut ties with oil giant BP, campaigners have claimed. 

The New Scientist Live festival, which is being hosted in Manchester this weekend, has faced heavy criticism from members of the science community and climate campaigners over its partnerships with BP and arms giant BAE Systems. 

But neither firm has been listed as an exhibitor at the three-day event this year, campaign group Culture Unstained revealed today. 

It comes after BP was removed as a sponsor and speaker at an online climate event by New Scientist Live last year when several scientists due to attend withdrew in protest. 

The group’s senior campaign Genevieve Dawson said: “It’s fantastic that young people excited and inspired by science will no longer have to be confronted by the logos of the very companies that are threatening their futures in order to enjoy this event.

“This should send a powerful message to the Science Museum that fossil fuel sponsors have no place in science education.”

Several cultural institutions have recently dropped sponsorship deals with the oil giant. However the Science Museum has so far resisted calls to end its partnership.