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While the beleaguered Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a viable path exists at all. These are tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out vastly better if real advances had been made on an policy focus that matters to people across the country: Levelling up. Yet the former leadership lacked the slightest idea on how to transform the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our departmental mantra, and its meaning is clear: levelling up is the means by which we achieve fair chances – not through reducing opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by providing options to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, again was a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Second, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an priority about the social fabric of our country – supporting people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes managed by the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was launched nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in funding, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in community development. Additionally, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – even though it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is crucial. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to students in those communities being up to a significant margin more positive about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a political group that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party discovered, breaking the promise of social mobility is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The public held accountable the leadership for its failure but, above all, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been cast off. The current administration has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is gradually replacing the hapless Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It suggests that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, new terminology. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the similar destiny, the respective organizations should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s chronically poor social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in full-time jobs with few results after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about equal chances as much as they want. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so urgently.