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As the beleaguered Conservative party convenes in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a road forward remains open. These are tough times for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an priority that resonates with people across the country: Equal opportunity. However the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the concept actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It served as our core mission, and its definition is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we realize equal access – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a intentional wording, reflecting the dual components of a fairness agenda. Initially, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by employers or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were essential to achieving better life chances. This represented an mission about the community framework of our country – fostering people’s potential and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund overseen from the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in investment, enterprise, financial planning, tax and in community development. Moreover, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is essential for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people dream big, they can attain. For any government, being able to create a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its new leader election, in September 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those regions vote for a party that did that? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what might have become a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories learned, breaking the promise of fair chances is the most expensive error any political party can make. The public held accountable the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on life chances and equal chances has been transferred to a Labour government. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the hapless Tories, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I was raised in, in the region. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

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 easy to say, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in occupations with few results after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. But where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on social mobility? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, wins. Not only for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has never needed equal access so desperately.