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While the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. These are difficult days 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 markedly improved if real advances had been made on an agenda that matters to people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to turn the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we first spoke 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 equal opportunity. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is clear: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – not through reducing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending chances to those that don’t.

Essential Principle

The other key DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, however access isn’t”, represented another a purposeful phrase, reflecting the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an mission about the social fabric of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up evolve into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes overseen from the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in investment, commerce, financial planning, taxation and in community development. Moreover, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the sole mechanism of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is vital for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is critical. Research by the academic institution at the university and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people perceive their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a organization that did that? This specific initiative is a clear case of what might have become a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Tories found out, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any government can make. Voters punished the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has passed to a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The current administration has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the hapless Tories, the alternative party, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I come from, in my hometown. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an industrial future.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the similar destiny, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but successful delivery of more equal results is significantly more difficult. The UK’s endemically weak life chances remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any genuine belief their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss improved access repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, significantly, for a whole country that has never needed fair chances so desperately.