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While the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a road forward exists at all. These are difficult days for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an agenda that matters to people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership lacked the first clue on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what levelling up entailed when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our guiding principle, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we attain fair chances – without removing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding options to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, again was a purposeful phrase, embodying the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our market. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This represented an priority about the social fabric of our country – supporting individual capabilities and providing access to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money administered out of the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw current strategies rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, commerce, economic policy, taxation and in local regeneration. Moreover, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is vital for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to students in those communities being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that did that? This specific initiative is one example of what might have become a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the most expensive error any leadership can make. Voters punished the administration for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the mandate on life chances and equal chances has been taken up by a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The new government has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is gradually replacing the failing Tories, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an industrial past can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the similar destiny, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can mention improved access as much as they want. Yet where is the organization that has the thorough strategy on life chances? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, wins. Not only for their organization, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so desperately.