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While the struggling Conservative party meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a viable path exists at all. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

It could have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that is important for people nationwide: Equal opportunity. However the former leadership lacked the basic understanding on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. During the initial period after the general election, it argued over what the phrase truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up meant when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the means by which we realize equal access – not by taking chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a intentional wording, reflecting the dual components of a social mobility strategy. Initially, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our market. As a result, learning and employment were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an priority about the social fabric of our country – investing in individual capabilities and connecting them to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Local investment schemes managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in funding, commerce, economic policy, taxation and in place-making. Additionally, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is crucial for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are related; that if people dream big, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to create a sense of optimism about the years ahead is critical. Analysis by the research body at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to students in those areas being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their future than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their future.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a party that did that? This specific initiative is one example of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. Voters held accountable the government for its failure but, above all, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the responsibility on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a new administration. The previous terminology has been cast off. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the hapless incumbents, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an industrial future.

For the public, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the identical outcome, each group should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is much harder. Britain’s endemically weak social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in employment with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention equal chances however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, succeeds. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so badly.