The UKs largest trade union has called for huge City bonuses to be taxed.

At the Labour Party Conference Unite joint leader Derek Simpson said the bonus structure for financial employees was "out of control".

Addressing the chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, Simpson said: "The powerful mega elite with no connection to ordinary people, an amoral class without a care for how their reckless behaviour is now wrecking lives."

Commenting on potential redundancies in the financial sector resulting from the economic downturn, he added: "These people want ordinary people to share their pain but they won't share their gain. If you can't regulate the bonus culture then tax it out of existence. It's time for internally co-ordinated government action to rein in these finance pirates, take the lid off of their secrecy and punish them when their actions lead to disaster for working people."