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As the beleaguered Tories convenes in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. These are challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that resonates with people throughout the UK: Levelling up. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the first clue on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into policy reality. For the two years after the general election, it debated what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for 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 DfE to talk about life chances. It was our core mission, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the method by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending chances to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, but opportunity is not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, embodying the two halves of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Second, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, education and business were crucial to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money overseen from the the relevant ministry. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was published nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in investment, commerce, economic policy, tax and in community development. Moreover, in education, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For any government, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is crucial. Analysis by the academic institution at the university and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people perceive their prospects.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a clear case of what might have become a game-changing administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Tories found out, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. Voters penalized the leadership for its failure but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. Labour has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It promises that an industrial past can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Same issue, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the identical outcome, both these parties should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is one thing, but actual achievement of more equal results is significantly more difficult. The UK’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about equal chances as much as they want. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a whole country that has never needed equal access so desperately.