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As the existentially challenged Tories meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a clear direction is available. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

It could have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that resonates with people across the country: Levelling up. But the former leadership hadn’t got the slightest idea on how to convert the trendy talk on social mobility into policy reality. For the two years after the general election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what levelling up signified when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its meaning is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we realize fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

The other key education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, again was a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our market. As a result, education and business were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an priority about the community framework of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was released almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for young working-class people, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of social mobility, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is crucial for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are connected; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is important. Research by the research body at the university and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their future.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a political group that took that action? This specific initiative is one example of what could have been a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate punished the administration for its incompetence but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on equal opportunity and fair access has been transferred to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been cast off. Labour has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the struggling Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It suggests that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

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 avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is much harder. The UK’s endemically weak life chances remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with little to show after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss equal chances as much as they want. But where is the party that has the complete plan on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so badly.