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While the beleaguered Tories gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a road forward remains open. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an priority that resonates with people across the country: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the basic understanding on how to transform the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the phrase even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the method by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by extending chances to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two parts of a fairness agenda. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Second, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our market. Therefore, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an priority about the societal structure of our country – supporting human talent and connecting them to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up turn into under the previous government? A towns fund managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in capital, business, economic policy, revenue and in local regeneration. Additionally, in education, 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 social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the sole mechanism of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is critical. Analysis by the academic institution at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those communities vote for a party that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what could have been a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Conservatives found out, failing to deliver of fair chances is the biggest blunder any political party can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

Now the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a new administration. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the hapless Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It promises that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, new terminology. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is much harder. The UK’s endemically weak social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in full-time jobs with few results after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss fairer opportunities however much they like. But where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on life chances? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, significantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs equal access so desperately.