Last Thursday, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown Lloyd Russell-Moyle appeared on the Emma Barnett Show on BBC Radio 5. Russell-Moyle made the case that the existence in twenty-first-century Britain of grinding poverty, deprivation, and hopelessness alongside the unfathomable wealth of billionaires is morally unacceptable. In an exchange that went viral, the host was visibly angered and incredulous at Russell-Moyle’s critique. “Why on earth shouldn’t people be able to be billionaires?” Barnett remonstrated.

Maybe Barnett’s job is to play devil’s advocate. But any viewer would be struck by the contrast between her contempt for Russell-Moyle’s point and the breeziness with which findings like the 120,000 excess deaths caused by austerity since 2010 are typically treated by journalists. Likewise the fact that fourteen million people are currently struggling in poverty, including four million children and two million pensioners, or that most of those afflicted by poverty live in a household where at least one person is in work.

Barnett isn’t a representative of the crackpot right but rather of an establishment media which prides itself on sensible moderation and nuance, and which sets the terms of political debate. It is therefore worth thinking about what was at stake in this defense of the UK’s 151 billionaires and, by extension, the broader economic elite.