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While the beleaguered Tories meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a viable path is available. We are in tough times for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that is important for people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the first clue on how to turn the popular slogan on levelling up into policy reality. For the two years after the general election, it debated what the term actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility meant when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we realize equal access – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending options to those that don’t.

Essential Principle

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our market. Therefore, education and business were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an priority about the social fabric of our country – investing in people’s potential and providing access to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up turn into under the previous government? A towns fund administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was launched almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in capital, business, fiscal strategy, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in education, including a university system that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the sole mechanism of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is important. Analysis by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their future than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those communities vote for a organization that made that decision? This specific initiative is a single instance of what could have been a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories learned, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The electorate held accountable the government for its incompetence but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the baton on social mobility and fair access has passed to a new administration. The previous terminology has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is steadily supplanting the struggling Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I was raised in, in the region. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the similar destiny, both these parties should learn from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but actual achievement of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Britain’s chronically poor social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about equal chances repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.