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While the existentially challenged Tories meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward exists at all. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an agenda that is important for people across the country: Equal opportunity. But the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. This became our guiding principle, and its purpose is clear: social mobility is the method by which we attain equal access – without removing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

The other key education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, yet chances are not”, represented another a intentional wording, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our market. Therefore, learning and employment were crucial to achieving better life chances. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes overseen from the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was published a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in capital, commerce, financial planning, revenue and in community development. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the strongest driver of upward movement for young working-class people, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For any government, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is important. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their prospects than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their future.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a political group that took that action? The targeted programme is one example of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Conservatives discovered, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The public penalized the government for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a new administration. The previous terminology has been discarded. The new government has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is steadily supplanting the hapless Tories, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I grew up in, in the region. It claims that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the same fate, each group should understand the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Britain’s chronically poor social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in full-time jobs with few results after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about equal chances as much as they want. Yet where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on social mobility? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has desperately requires equal access so desperately.