David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, today called for “capitalism with a conscience” and said it was time for wealth to be distributed “more equally”.

The Tory leader said that while he would stand up for business, he would also “stand up to business when the things that people value are at risk”.

Speaking in front of world leaders, financiers and corporate directors at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Mr Cameron said: “…it is time to place the market within a moral framework - even if that means standing up to companies who make life harder for parents and families.

“It is time to help create vibrant, local economies - even if that means standing in the way of the global corporate juggernauts.

“And it’s time to decentralise economic power, to spread opportunity and wealth and ownership more equally through society, and that will mean recapitalising the poor rather than just the banks.”

Mr Cameron spoke to the audience of the halcyon days of the 1950s where “there was a sense that everyone could have a slice of the pie”.

He added: “In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher led an ownership revolution that gave millions a new stake in our economy. That was truly popular capitalism, and we’ve never needed it more than we do today.”

In an attack on the banking sector, Mr Cameron said: “Our financial system boasts people so bright they’ve created instruments beyond even their own understanding.

“Now they need to use those talents to help the poorest build assets, to go into our most deprived communities, giving them the tools to make the most of the market, to help them with banking and saving and owning.”

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