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As the beleaguered Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a road forward remains open. These are tough times for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an priority that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet the previous administration did not possess the slightest idea on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the concept even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility meant when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It was our departmental mantra, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we achieve equality of opportunity – without removing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending options to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two parts of a fairness agenda. First, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, learning and employment were key to achieving better life chances. This represented an priority about the societal structure of our country – supporting human talent and connecting them to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? A towns fund managed by the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was published almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. And, of course, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the only engine of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is crucial for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the years ahead is crucial. Studies by the academic institution at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their future than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those areas vote for a organization that made that decision? The targeted programme is one example of what had the potential to be a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Tories discovered, breaking the promise of fair chances is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The electorate punished the government for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on social mobility and fair access has been taken up by a new administration. The previous terminology has been cast off. Labour has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the hapless Tories, the alternative party, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It claims that an former economic strength can revive into an revitalized economy.

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

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s persistently low life chances remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss equal chances repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equal access so desperately.