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While the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a viable path exists at all. These are difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an policy focus that is important for people across the country: Social mobility. Yet the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to convert the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up meant when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the approach by which we attain equality of opportunity – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing options to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

The other key DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our education system. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our market. Thus, learning and employment were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in capital, business, financial planning, tax and in community development. Moreover, in education, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – although it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is essential for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are linked; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For any government, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the years ahead is crucial. Analysis by the research body at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to students in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a organization that took that action? The targeted programme is one example of what had the potential to be a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Conservatives learned, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. The public penalized the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on equal opportunity and fair access has been transferred to a new administration. The old slogan has been abandoned. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the hapless Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but actual achievement of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in occupations with few results after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can mention improved access as much as they want. But where is the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so urgently.