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While the beleaguered Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a road forward exists at all. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

Things could have turned out markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that resonates with people across the country: Levelling up. But the former leadership lacked the first clue on how to turn the popular slogan on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the phrase even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed 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 equal opportunity. It served as our guiding principle, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking chances away from those who possess it, but rather by providing chances to those that don’t.

Essential Principle

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, yet chances are not”, again was a intentional wording, embodying the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. First, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by employers or our market. Thus, learning and employment were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an mission about the societal structure of our country – fostering human talent and linking them with chances.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up turn into under the previous government? Local investment schemes managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was published almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, business, financial planning, tax and in place-making. Additionally, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the strongest driver of upward movement for young working-class people, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is crucial for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is important. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their destiny.

Lost Potential

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 areas vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what could have been a revolutionary Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Conservatives discovered, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate punished the government for its incompetence but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

Currently the responsibility on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has passed to a Labour government. The old slogan has been abandoned. The new government has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is gradually replacing the struggling incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I come from, in the region. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Our nation’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with little to show after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss equal chances repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has urgently needs equal access so badly.