It’s 4 May, and staff at the Financial Conduct Authority’s Stratford headquarters are about to go on strike for the first time in the regulator’s history.

Six police and a handful of security guards with high-viz jackets are lined up as a convoy of some 40 disgruntled employees rounds the corner. Later, their speeches slam a “disgraceful” regulator leaving “thousands of staff worse off” by overhauling pay and conditions.