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While the beleaguered Tories gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. We are in challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that resonates with people throughout the UK: Levelling up. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the first clue on how to turn the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It served as our departmental mantra, and its definition is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by providing opportunities to those that are without.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, but opportunity is not”, again was a intentional wording, reflecting the two parts of a fairness agenda. First, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our schools and colleges. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our market. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an mission about the social fabric of our country – fostering human talent and providing access to chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? Local investment schemes managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was launched a significant period after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in funding, commerce, financial planning, taxation and in community development. Moreover, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the only engine of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is crucial. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those communities vote for a organization that took that action? The targeted programme is a clear case of what had the potential to be a game-changing administration strategy on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party found out, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The electorate held accountable the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on life chances and fair access has passed to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I come from, in the region. It promises that an former economic strength can be reborn into an industrial future.

For voters, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the same fate, the respective organizations should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. Britain’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in occupations with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about improved access as much as they want. Yet where is the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on social mobility? I see none. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for themselves, but, crucially, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.