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As the beleaguered Tories meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a clear direction remains open. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

It could have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that matters to people throughout the UK: Social mobility. Yet the previous administration lacked the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the phrase truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our core mission, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the approach by which we achieve equal access – without removing prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial education department term we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, embodying the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. First, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. Thus, education and business were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an priority about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under the Tory administration? Regional development money overseen from the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was released nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, tax and in community development. Moreover, in education, including a university system that has become a target for leaders across parties – even though it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for young working-class people, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is crucial for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is important. Analysis by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that possibility was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the Conservatives learned, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any leadership can make. Voters punished the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the responsibility on social mobility and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. Labour has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing Tories, the challenger, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the similar destiny, each group should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but actual achievement of more equal results is far more challenging. Our nation’s persistently low social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, 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 talk about improved access as much as they want. Yet where is the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for themselves, but, significantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so desperately.