The director general of the Institute of Directors has said that Ed Miliband's keynote speech to the Labour Party conference "reached out to the business community".

Simon Walker told Today business presenter Simon Jack that Mr Miliband's claim that every millionaire will be receiving a cheque for £40,000 next April was "misleading".

But, he added, "a lot of the actual proposals - ending quarterly reporting, for example, and the emphasis on vocational training - I think are things that business will and should welcome."

And he called for governments, of whatever party, to "get off the backs" of small and medium companies both over regulation and taxation.

"Business can do business with Ed Miliband," he explained. "But we'd like him to think carefully and not take the cheap shots."

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