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As the struggling Tories meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out so different if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership did not possess the basic understanding on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. This became our guiding principle, and its meaning is unambiguous: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing chances to those that are without.

The Core Concept

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a purposeful phrase, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Second, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in human talent and providing access to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? Local investment schemes administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was released a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in community development. Moreover, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a target for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is vital for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are linked; that if people dream big, they can attain. For any government, being able to create a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is important. Research by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those areas being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those regions vote for a political group that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what could have been a revolutionary Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Tories found out, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The public held accountable the administration for its failure but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

At present the responsibility on equal opportunity and fair access has passed to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been discarded. The new government has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is steadily supplanting the struggling incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I come from, in the region. It promises that an industrial past can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a déjà vu experience. Same issue, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the similar destiny, each group should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is far more challenging. The UK’s persistently low social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss improved access however much they like. But where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not only for their party, but, crucially, for a complete society that has urgently needs fair chances so urgently.