LONDON (Reuters) - Marks and Spencer boss Stuart Rose survived one of the biggest shareholder rebellions of recent years yesterday, as 22 percent of investors abstained or voted against his election as executive chairman.

Rose, under fire for combining the roles of chairman and chief executive, said he had been described as "the Robert Mugabe of retail" but told 1,400 shareholders at their annual meeting that he took corporate governance "extremely seriously".

"M&S is an institution that is bigger than any one individual, and that certainly includes me," he said.

Rose pledged to continue expanding Britain's biggest clothing retailer, despite a downturn in consumer spending, and said he would fix its upmarket food business, which triggered a profit warning last week, "in short order."

He was received warmly by small shareholders at London's Royal Festival Hall, where they enjoyed lavish hospitality, including tastings of M&S's Rocky Road ice cream and organic cider.

"It looks as if there's a catastrophe in the economy around the corner. So who better to steer the ship?" asked Denise Kieran, a retired teacher and magistrate.

But outside the meeting, analysts and investors were still questioning Rose's stewardship after a series of bungled management changes and a big fall in M&S's shares.

"Shareholders need a Plan B or C," analysts at Lehman Brothers said in a research note, arguing that M&S's expansion plans could stretch its borrowings.

Rose said he saw no need for big changes.

"Your company failed to invest at the turn of the millennium. We must not make the same mistake twice," he said, adding there was "no current prospect" of a dividend cut. M&S said 77.9 percent of voting shareholders had backed Rose, with 4.9 percent voting against and 17.2 percent abstaining. Newspapers had said up to 30 percent of shareholders were likely to abstain or vote against Rose's appointment.

Rose was brought in to defend M&S in 2004 from a £9.1-billion ($18 billion), or 400-pence-a-share, bid approach from retail billionaire Philip Green.

He revamped stores and introduced new fashions to lure back shoppers and drive a recovery that lifted M&S shares to a record high of 759 pence in April 2007.