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As the struggling Tories meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a clear direction is available. We are in tough times for a political party that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that resonates with people nationwide: Levelling up. However the previous administration did not possess the basic understanding on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the term even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. It was our core mission, and its meaning is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we attain equality of opportunity – not through reducing prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

An additional vital education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, again was a intentional wording, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. First, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by employers or our economy. As a result, schools and companies were crucial to achieving better life chances. This represented an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in people’s potential and providing access to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Regional development money managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in capital, business, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a target for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the only engine of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For any government, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is important. Studies by the academic institution 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 youth in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people perceive their destiny.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a political group that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what might have become a transformative administration strategy on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Conservatives learned, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any government can make. Voters punished the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Now the responsibility on equal opportunity and fair access has passed to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is steadily supplanting the failing Tories, the challenger, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Same issue, new terminology. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the same fate, each group should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is much harder. Britain’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem 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 people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about improved access as much as they want. But where is the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a complete society that has never needed equal access so desperately.