Labour leader Ed Miliband has backed some of the key proposals of the Kay review on City short-termism and called for the reform of company takeover rules, the strengthening of corporate governance and empowering of long-term shareholders.

Among Miliband's main proposals are abolishing rules forcing companies to produce quarterly company reports, as they encourage short-term profit-making.

Another element is to ensure long-term shareholders have a bigger say by restricting votes on a takeover, to those already holding shares, when a bid is made. This would keep hedge funds at bay which hoover up shares speculatively, in the hope of later takeover profits.

Speaking at the party's annual conference in Manchester, Miliband said he also wanted to place a duty on investors to act in the best interests of ordinary savers and to prioritise long-term growth of companies.

He also wants to introduce a code which will compel companies to publish their pay ratios, and put the responsibility on directors to explain in public why their ratio is 40:1 or more.

Miliband also issued a warning that Labour would break up banks unless they began to speed up their implementation of proposals by Sir John Vickers, which calls for a ringfence between the high street operations and investment banks.

The opposition leader said his party was best able to represent people of all backgrounds and incomes, and that the former governments of Blair and Brown had failed to hold the powerful to account.

The Labour leader said his speech was aimed at those who had a sense that in the UK there was 'one rule for those at the top, another for everyone else. Two nations, not one.'