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While the struggling Tories meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a viable path is available. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people nationwide: Levelling up. Yet Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the first clue on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. It was our core mission, and its meaning is unambiguous: social mobility is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – without removing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing options to those that are without.

The Core Concept

Another crucial education department term we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, reflecting the dual components of a fairness agenda. Initially, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our market. As a result, schools and companies were crucial to achieving better life chances. This represented an agenda about the societal structure of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money managed by the DLUHC. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled 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, economic policy, taxation and in community development. Moreover, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the only engine of social mobility, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is crucial for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For any government, being able to create a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is important. Studies by the research body at the university and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the ruling party ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that took that action? This specific initiative is a single instance of what might have become a game-changing administration strategy on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Tories found out, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. Voters punished the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the mandate on social mobility and fair access has been taken up by a Labour government. The previous terminology has been cast off. The current administration has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the hapless Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must seem like a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the similar destiny, each group should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in full-time jobs with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can mention improved access however much they like. But where is the party that has the complete plan on life chances? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so desperately.