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As the struggling Tories meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a road forward exists at all. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out vastly better if real advances had been made on an agenda that matters to people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership did not possess the slightest idea on how to convert the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we attain fair chances – not through reducing prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

The other key ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, but opportunity is not”, represented another a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a fairness agenda. Initially, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Second, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, education and business were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an mission about the societal structure of our country – fostering individual capabilities and linking them with chances.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes administered out of the DLUHC. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was released nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in capital, business, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. Additionally, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is essential for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the future is crucial. Analysis by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their future than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a political group that made that decision? The targeted programme is a clear case of what might have become a revolutionary Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Conservatives found out, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any government can make. The electorate punished the administration for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the mandate on social mobility and equal chances has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been discarded. The new government has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the struggling incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It promises that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the identical outcome, each group should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that fair chance language is one thing, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is much harder. The UK’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in full-time jobs with little to show after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? I see none. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has never needed fair chances so urgently.