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While the beleaguered Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a road forward exists at all. We are in tough times for a political party that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

Things could have turned out so different if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that is important for people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the first clue on how to turn the popular slogan on levelling up into policy reality. During the initial period after the general election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. It was our core mission, and its definition is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that lack them.

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, embodying the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. Therefore, learning and employment were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an mission about the societal structure of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was published a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in investment, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in place-making. Moreover, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is important. Studies by the research body at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to students in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people feel about their future.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a organization that made that decision? The targeted programme is a single instance of what might have become a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories found out, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any government can make. The public penalized the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the responsibility on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has passed to a new administration. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I grew up in, in the region. It promises that an industrial past can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Same issue, different language. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but actual achievement of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Britain’s persistently low social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with little to show after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss improved access repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so desperately.