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The FTSE 100 – the index of the 100 largest firms on the London Stock Exchange – has surged past the 9,000-point barrier for the first time in its history.

Investors are celebrating.

Analysts are toasting a bumper year.

Big names in finance, defence, and precious metals are swimming in profits.

The markets are on fire. But what about the rest of us?

We were told that a Labour government would mean change – that after 14 years of Conservative austerity, chaos, and cronyism, there would finally be leadership committed to lifting people up, rebuilding our broken institutions, and redistributing wealth more fairly.

But a year into Keir Starmer’s government, it’s looking more like business-as-usual for the rich — and worse-than-ever for the rest.

Just look at Rachel Reeves – if you can bear it.

The Labour Chancellor is now pushing for deregulation of the City — the very same financial deregulation that helped cause the 2008 crash.

Her justification is that loosening the rules will attract more investment and that the wealth generated will “trickle down” to ordinary people.

That phrase should sound familiar.

It’s the same discredited logic used by Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and every neoliberal government since. It’s the idea that if we just make the rich even richer, they’ll kindly spread their wealth around.

But they never do.

And here’s the twist: Keir Starmer himself rubbished this nonsense only a few years ago.

In 2022, he described trickle-down economics as a “piss take” against the British public.

He was right then. So what changed?

I say that because now, under Labour, we’re watching the same Tory policies unfold.

In some cases, they’re being carried out more efficiently, certainly more quietly, and with a red rosette slapped on top.

The FTSE’s record high isn’t evidence of a healthy, fair economy.

It’s proof that the wealth of the UK is being extracted and concentrated at the top, while the foundations underneath — our public services — are being starved.

Gold prices are hitting records, silver is at a 14-year high, and defence contractors like Babcock and BAE Systems are seeing share prices soar. Rolls-Royce is booming too.

Meanwhile, councils are declaring bankruptcy.

NHS waiting lists are stretching into years.

Teachers are buying pencils and glue sticks out of their own pockets.

Food banks are normalised.

This isn’t economic recovery.

It’s economic apartheid.

We keep being told there’s “no money left” for the things that matter — healthcare, social care, housing, libraries, green energy, public transport — but clearly, there’s plenty of money sloshing around at the top.

The problem isn’t that the country is broke.

It’s that the wealth is being hoarded.

So why isn’t Labour acting like a party of the people?

Why isn’t Reeves taxing the windfall profits of corporations?

Why isn’t she introducing a wealth tax on billionaires?

Why isn’t Starmer reversing the ruinous privatisation of public services?

The answer is obvious: because this Labour leadership doesn’t believe in redistribution.

It believes in appeasement.

Of the markets.

Of the right-wing press.

Of the same donors and speculators who fund the Tories.

Rachel Reeves has spent more time reassuring hedge funds than she has speaking to trade unions.

Starmer has U-turned on nearly every major progressive pledge he made during his party leadership campaign, back in 2020.

This is not the Labour Party of Clement Attlee or even of 2017.

This is a hollowed-out, technocratic shell that governs for capital and calls it pragmatism.

They call it “fiscal responsibility” — but what it really means is refusing to tax the rich.

They call it “stability” — but it means perpetuating inequality.

They call it “pro-growth” — but it’s only growth for the few.

There’s no reason a country as rich as Britain should have child hunger, mass homelessness, collapsing councils, and workers striking just to keep their heads above water.

The money exists.

The FTSE proves it.

But the political will to use it in the public interest has vanished.

The danger is not just that Labour is failing to fix the system — it’s that Starmer, Reeves and the rest are legitimising the same failed ideology that created the financial crisis and opened the door to austerity.

If a Labour government champions deregulation, privatisation, and trickle-down economics, who’s left to oppose it?

(Yes, we’re supposed to be getting a new left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana – but that may take years to build up enough support to make a difference.)

And when the next financial crash comes — as it will, because speculative deregulation always ends in collapse — the public won’t just blame the bankers.

They’ll blame the politicians who let them off the leash. This time, that will include Labour.

There is an alternative.

Labour could still choose to be the party of wealth redistribution.

Of public ownership.

Of investment in the common good.

But that would require courage — the courage to stand up to capital, not court it.

The courage to tax wealth and use it to lift everyone.

That’s the job Labour was founded to do.

Not to make the rich richer so they can buy private healthcare while the rest of us rot on waiting lists.

Not to pretend the economy is booming while millions can’t afford heating or rent.

To spread prosperity, not hoard it.

Until Starmer and Reeves remember that, they’re not governing for the people. They’re governing for the privileged.

This FTSE ‘milestone’ should be a millstone around their collective throats. Or their political tombstone.

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