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While the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a viable path is available. We are in tough times for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people nationwide: Levelling up. However the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to convert the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it discussed what the term truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up entailed when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we realize fair chances – not through reducing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

The other key education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an agenda about the social fabric of our country – supporting individual capabilities and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the Tory administration? A towns fund managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was published a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in funding, commerce, fiscal strategy, taxation and in place-making. Moreover, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Possibly the only engine of equal opportunity, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is crucial for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the future is crucial. Studies by the research body at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their prospects than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people view their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a political group that did that? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. On the other hand, as the Tories found out, breaking the promise of social mobility is the costliest mistake any government can make. Voters penalized the administration for its failure but, primarily, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

At present the mandate on social mobility and equality of opportunity has passed to a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been cast off. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is steadily supplanting the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the identical outcome, each group should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but successful delivery of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in full-time jobs with few results after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss improved access repeatedly. Yet where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, succeeds. Not just for themselves, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so desperately.