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As the existentially challenged Tories convenes in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction remains open. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out so different if concrete steps had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. However Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the basic understanding on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into policy reality. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. This became our departmental mantra, and its meaning is clear: social mobility is the method by which we realize equality of opportunity – without removing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by extending options to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

The other key education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. First, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economic system. Thus, education and business were crucial to achieving better life chances. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up turn into under the Tory administration? A towns fund overseen from the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was published a significant period after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in investment, business, financial planning, tax and in local regeneration. And, of course, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – although it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is vital for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are linked; that if people dream big, they can attain. For any government, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the future is important. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their prospects than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their future.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its new leader election, in that period, the ruling party ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a party that did that? This specific initiative is one example of what could have been a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Now the mandate on social mobility and equal chances has passed to a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the hapless Tories, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

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

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the same fate, each group should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but successful delivery of more equal results is far more challenging. Our nation’s endemically weak social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention equal chances however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so badly.