Hewitt backs fury at directors' pay awards

Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, yesterday gave her backing to shareholder revolts over excessive directors' pay awards.

She described the growing number of protests against the payments as "entirely justified fury". Ms Hewitt's remarks will increase pressure on company executives who have come under sustained criticism this week over a series of payments for executives overseeing falling profits and share prices.

"In this year's company AGMs we are seeing a new wave of shareholder fury, an entirely justified fury about excessive rewards to directors who have been responsible for corporate failure," she said.

She said that Labour should not risk getting on "the wrong side of individualism and consumerism" but need to ensure there were "new institutions and new forms of action that will embody and reinforce values of mutual responsibility".

The Cabinet minister's comments followed a controversial £1.8m pay-off on Wednesday for Adam Singer, the former chief executive of the troubled cable television company Telewest.

Her stance may also be seen as a signal that the government's plans for reform of corporate boardrooms could be far more wide reaching than previously thought.