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As the struggling Tories gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a viable path remains open. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the concept actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. It was our guiding principle, and its meaning is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, served as a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economic system. Therefore, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This represented an priority about the societal structure of our country – fostering individual capabilities and providing access to opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was launched a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in funding, enterprise, financial planning, tax and in local regeneration. Moreover, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is crucial for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are connected; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For any government, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is critical. Studies by the research body at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more optimistic about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people perceive their future.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a political group that made that decision? The targeted programme is a clear case of what could have been a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Conservatives learned, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate penalized the administration for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the responsibility on life chances and fair access has passed to a new administration. The old slogan has been abandoned. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is steadily supplanting the struggling Tories, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It claims that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the similar destiny, the respective organizations should learn from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Britain’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in full-time jobs with few results after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss improved access however much they like. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has never needed fair chances so urgently.