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While the struggling Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. These are difficult days for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But the previous administration did not possess the first clue on how to transform the popular slogan on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the phrase even meant.

I was perplexed, 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 education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It was our departmental mantra, and its definition is clear: social mobility is the means by which we realize fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial education department term we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, again was a intentional wording, representing the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economic system. As a result, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This was an mission about the community framework of our country – supporting individual capabilities and providing access to chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in investment, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a target for leaders across parties – although it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the only engine of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is crucial for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For any government, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is important. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their future than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can rapidly and effectively change how people view their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those communities vote for a political group that did that? The targeted programme is one example of what might have become a transformative administration strategy on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the most expensive error any government can make. Voters held accountable the administration for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

At present the mandate on social mobility and fair access has passed to a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been cast off. The current administration has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I grew up in, in the region. It suggests that an industrial past can revive into an revitalized economy.

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

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. Britain’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with few results after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention equal chances repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for themselves, but, significantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires equal access so badly.