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As the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a clear direction exists at all. These are tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out so different if real advances had been made on an agenda that is important for people throughout the UK: Levelling up. However the previous administration hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to turn the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the general election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up entailed when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase 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: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve equal access – not through reducing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

Another crucial education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, education and business were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an agenda about the social fabric of our country – fostering human talent and linking them with prospects.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? A towns fund administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was released nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in investment, business, financial planning, taxation and in local regeneration. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is essential for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are linked; that if people dream big, they can attain. For any government, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the future is critical. Studies by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – community-focused methods 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 data shows: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people view their destiny.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a party that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what could have been a transformative administration strategy on levelling up, but that possibility was completely wasted. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the ruling party discovered, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its failure but, primarily, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the baton on social mobility and fair access has passed to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is gradually replacing the hapless Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is easy to say, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s endemically weak social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in employment with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. But where is the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a whole country that has never needed fair chances so desperately.