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As the struggling Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a road forward is available. These are tough times for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out markedly improved if real advances had been made on an agenda that matters to people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the slightest idea on how to turn the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the general election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our guiding principle, and its definition is straightforward: social mobility is the approach by which we realize fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, again was a intentional wording, embodying the two parts of a fairness agenda. First, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Second, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our market. As a result, education and business were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an mission about the social fabric of our country – investing in people’s potential and connecting them to chances.

The Reality of Implementation

How did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was launched almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in funding, commerce, financial planning, taxation and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – even though it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for young working-class people, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the sole mechanism of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is vital for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are linked; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is important. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those communities being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people view their destiny.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that made that decision? The targeted programme is one example of what had the potential to be a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories learned, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its failure but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Currently the baton on social mobility and equality of opportunity has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been abandoned. The current administration has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is gradually replacing the struggling Tories, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I come from, in the region. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For voters, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the similar destiny, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s persistently low social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in employment with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can mention equal chances repeatedly. But where is the organization that has the thorough strategy on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not only for themselves, but, significantly, for a whole country that has never needed equality of opportunity so desperately.