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While the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a clear direction remains open. These are difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet the previous administration did not possess the slightest idea on how to turn the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. It was our core mission, and its purpose is straightforward: social mobility is the method by which we achieve equal access – not by taking chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending opportunities to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, yet chances are not”, served as a deliberate expression, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economy. As a result, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering human talent and connecting them to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

What did the social mobility agenda turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was published nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw current strategies relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in capital, business, economic policy, revenue and in place-making. Moreover, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those regions vote for a party that made that decision? The targeted programme is a single instance of what could have been a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Conservatives found out, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The public penalized the government for its incompetence but, above all, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Now the mandate on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the struggling incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an former economic strength can revive into an revitalized economy.

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

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is much harder. Our nation’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with few results after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any real hope their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about improved access however much they like. But where is the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not only for themselves, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equal access so desperately.