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As the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a viable path remains open. These are tough times for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an priority that matters to people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership did not possess the basic understanding on how to turn the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It was our departmental mantra, and its meaning is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we achieve equal access – without removing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by providing opportunities to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, but opportunity is not”, served as a intentional wording, embodying the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economic system. Therefore, schools and companies were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the societal structure of our country – fostering people’s potential and linking them with prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes administered out of the DLUHC. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was released a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, tax and in local regeneration. Moreover, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of equal opportunity, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is crucial for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to create a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is critical. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their future than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people perceive their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories found out, failing to deliver of fair chances is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The electorate punished the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the responsibility on equal opportunity and fair access has been transferred to a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is steadily supplanting the struggling incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I come from, in my hometown. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is much harder. Our nation’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in employment with few results after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss fairer opportunities as much as they want. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a complete society that has desperately requires equal access so desperately.