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As the beleaguered Conservative party convenes in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a viable path is available. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that matters to people throughout the UK: Social mobility. Yet Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the slightest idea on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its definition is clear: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve equal access – not through reducing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending chances to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

The other key DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, however access isn’t”, again was a intentional wording, reflecting the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our schools and colleges. Second, access not provided uniformly by employers or our market. As a result, schools and companies were crucial to achieving better life chances. This represented an agenda about the social fabric of our country – supporting individual capabilities and connecting them to chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in investment, business, financial planning, taxation and in place-making. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of social mobility, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital 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 succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is critical. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those areas vote for a political group that did that? The targeted programme is a clear case of what might have become a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party learned, breaking the promise of fair chances is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The public penalized the government for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

At present the baton on life chances and equal chances has been taken up by a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the failing incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I grew up in, in the region. It claims that an former economic strength can be reborn into an industrial future.

For the public, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss fairer opportunities as much as they want. But where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has desperately requires equal access so urgently.