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As the existentially challenged Tories gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a viable path remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very 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 policy focus that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. However the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on levelling up into policy reality. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. It served as our departmental mantra, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – not through reducing chances away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding options to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial education department term we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a deliberate expression, embodying the two parts of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our market. As a result, schools and companies were key to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the social fabric of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up evolve into under the Tory administration? A towns fund managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in funding, commerce, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. And, of course, in education, including a university system that has become a target for elected officials – although it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are connected; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For any government, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is crucial. Analysis by the research body at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their future than those in similar areas 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 prospects.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a party that did that? The targeted programme is a clear case of what had the potential to be a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

At present the mandate on social mobility and fair access has passed to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the hapless incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

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

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. The UK’s chronically poor life chances remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in employment with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss equal chances repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so badly.