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While the beleaguered Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an policy focus that matters to people across the country: Social mobility. But the former leadership lacked the slightest idea on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the general election, it discussed what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility meant when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about social mobility. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending chances to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, however access isn’t”, represented another a purposeful phrase, embodying the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Second, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economic system. Therefore, learning and employment were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an mission about the community framework of our country – supporting human talent and linking them with opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up turn into under the previous government? A towns fund overseen from the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was published a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in investment, enterprise, financial planning, taxation and in local regeneration. And, of course, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – although it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is essential for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are connected; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is important. Studies by the academic institution at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people view their future.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a party that took that action? The targeted programme is one example of what could have been a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the ruling party discovered, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any government can make. The public penalized the leadership for its failure but, above all, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Now the responsibility on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a Labour government. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is increasingly displacing the hapless Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an industrial past can revive into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Same issue, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is much harder. Britain’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in occupations with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss improved access repeatedly. Yet where is the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has never needed equal access so badly.