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As the beleaguered Conservative party meets 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 governing group that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an priority that is important for people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet the previous administration lacked the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It was our core mission, and its meaning is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we realize fair chances – not through reducing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, yet chances are not”, represented another a intentional wording, reflecting the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by employers or our market. Therefore, schools and companies were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering individual capabilities and linking them with chances.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was launched nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in funding, commerce, financial planning, tax and in place-making. Moreover, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a target for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for young working-class people, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the only engine of fair chances, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, 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 crucial. Studies by the research body at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to students in those areas being up to a significant margin more positive about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people feel about their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a organization that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what might have become a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. Voters punished the administration for its failure but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

Now the mandate on social mobility and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the failing Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I grew up in, in the region. It promises that an former economic strength can be reborn into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, both these parties should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of more equal results is far more challenging. Britain’s persistently low social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about fairer opportunities however much they like. Yet where is the organization that has the complete plan on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a whole country that has urgently needs equal access so desperately.