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As the beleaguered Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a viable path exists at all. We are in challenging circumstances 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 real advances had been made on an priority that resonates with people throughout the UK: Social mobility. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up signified when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the approach by which we realize equal access – not through reducing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by providing options to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

The other key DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, represented another a intentional wording, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. First, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by employers or our market. Therefore, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an priority about the community framework of our country – fostering people’s potential and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up become under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in capital, commerce, financial planning, taxation and in local regeneration. And, of course, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – even though it remains the strongest driver 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, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is crucial for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are linked; that if people aim high, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people feel about their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those regions vote for a party that took that action? The targeted programme is a clear case of what might have become a transformative administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories learned, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any government can make. The public held accountable the administration for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Currently the mandate on life chances and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the struggling Tories, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, new terminology. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the same fate, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about fairer opportunities repeatedly. Yet where is the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for themselves, but, crucially, for a whole country that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so desperately.