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As the beleaguered Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path is available. These are tough times for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the concept even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its definition is straightforward: levelling up is the approach by which we attain equality of opportunity – not by taking prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by providing chances to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. First, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. Thus, schools and companies were crucial to achieving better life chances. This was an mission about the societal structure of our country – supporting human talent and connecting them to opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

What did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. A white paper was published almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in capital, business, fiscal strategy, taxation and in community development. Additionally, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – although it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the sole mechanism of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is crucial for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are linked; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the future is crucial. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those communities vote for a political group that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what had the potential to be a game-changing administration strategy on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories learned, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any political party can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its broken promises on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the same fate, the respective organizations should learn from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is much harder. Britain’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in employment with few results after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss equal chances as much as they want. However, which party has the organization that has the complete plan on social mobility? I see none. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, significantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires fair chances so badly.