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As the struggling Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a viable path remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an priority that resonates with people across the country: Levelling up. But the former leadership hadn’t got the slightest idea on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. During the initial period after the general election, it debated what the phrase actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its meaning is unambiguous: social mobility is the means by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by providing options to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a deliberate expression, reflecting the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our market. Thus, schools and companies were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an priority about the community framework of our country – investing in people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? A towns fund administered out of the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A white paper was released a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in investment, business, fiscal strategy, revenue and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is vital for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is important. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their prospects than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people feel about their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a party that took that action? This specific initiative is one example of what had the potential to be a revolutionary Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Conservatives learned, failing to deliver of social mobility is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. Voters punished the leadership for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Now the baton on life chances and equal chances has passed to a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It suggests that an industrial past can be reborn into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Similar challenge, different language. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the similar destiny, each group should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is much harder. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in occupations with few results after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss improved access however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so desperately.