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While the beleaguered Conservative party meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a clear direction remains open. We are in tough times 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 concrete steps had been made on an agenda that is important for people throughout the UK: Levelling up. Yet the former leadership did not possess the slightest idea on how to turn the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It served as our guiding principle, and its meaning is clear: social mobility is the method by which we realize equality of opportunity – without removing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by providing chances to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, represented another a purposeful phrase, embodying the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. First, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by employers or our economic system. Thus, schools and companies were key to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in investment, business, financial planning, tax and in place-making. Moreover, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a target for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is crucial for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For any government, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the years ahead is crucial. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people view their destiny.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a organization that did that? The targeted programme is a clear case of what had the potential to be a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate penalized the government for its failure but, above all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Now the baton on life chances and equal chances has been taken up by a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The current administration has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is gradually replacing the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Similar challenge, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is far more challenging. The UK’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can mention fairer opportunities as much as they want. However, which party has the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so desperately.