UK companies would have lost eight times more shareholder votes on top executives' pay packets, had new measures proposed by business secretary Vince Cable been put in force four years ago, a shareholder group has said.

Pirc, the share-voting advisory firm, has said that just 11 companies in the UK have lost remuneration votes in the past four years. But if a "75% rule" proposed yesterday by Cable been put into effect straight after the financial crisis in 2008, at least 85 companies would have lost.