Labour Party leader Ed Miliband coughs, as he listens to Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls deliver his speech to delegates at Manchester Central during the fourth day of the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday September 29, 2010. See PA story LABOUR Miliband. Photo credit should read: Dave Thompson/PA Wire

Ed Miliband warned bankers today they must wave goodbye to their culture of “excessive” bonuses and reconnect with the rest of the country.

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In a speech in London’s Canary Wharf financial district, the Labour leader urged a return to “one nation banking” which would serve the wider economy and society.

His appeal came at the end of what he called a “turbulent” week for the banking industry after disgraced former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin was stripped of his knighthood.

Mr Goodwin’s successor at the majority state-owned bank waived his almost £1 million bonus amid intense pressure from politicians and the public.

Mr Miliband told the bankers in his audience at the Thomson Reuters Building that they needed to reflect “the values of Britain”.

“We cannot have a banking sector so divorced from the rest of the economy and the rest of society,” he said.

“We succeed or fail together. It is not about the politics of envy, it is about a culture of responsibility.

“We need what you might call ‘one nation banking’. We need banks that serve the real economy. We need banking serving every region, every sector, every business, every family in this country.

“And we need banks run in a way that people believe are consistent with their values - the values of Britain.”

He added: “Responsibility means ending the culture of excessive bonuses.”

The Labour leader warned of a return to “two nations”, the description of 19th century Britain used by Victorian Conservative prime minister Benjamin Disraeli.

The banking and financial sector was on a path of “gradual separation from the rest of society”, he said.

“We are once again at risk of becoming a country separated economically, geographically and socially,” he went on.

“We are once again at risk of becoming two nations in this country.

“That is not the kind of society in which I want to raise my children.

“And it is not the kind of society in which the vast majority of people in this country - including bankers - want to raise theirs.”

Mr Miliband said banks, effectively underwritten by the taxpayer, could not be “immune” from public debate.

“This is a call for banking to recognise that continuing on its current path will lead to further isolation from society, greater public anger, more years in which each payday is a newspaper headline,” he said.

“This is a call on banking to recognise that it should take the path of change, to recognise that it is not isolated from the economy or society.”