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While the struggling Conservative party meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a road forward remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But the previous administration lacked the slightest idea on how to transform the popular slogan on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it debated what the phrase actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its definition is straightforward: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by extending chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, again was a purposeful phrase, embodying the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, schools and companies were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an priority about the societal structure of our country – supporting people’s potential and linking them with chances.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in capital, commerce, financial planning, revenue and in local regeneration. And, of course, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – even though it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the primary source of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is crucial for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the future is important. Analysis by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their future.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what could have been a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Conservatives discovered, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. The public punished the administration for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

Currently the mandate on life chances and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a Labour government. The previous terminology has been discarded. The new government has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the struggling incumbents, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I come from, in the region. It promises that an industrial past can revive into an industrial future.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the identical outcome, each group should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Our nation’s endemically weak social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with little to show after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Politicians can mention fairer opportunities as much as they want. Yet where is the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so badly.