As the original author championed levelling up as the critical to Conservative success – but the former Prime Minister failed to deliver. See the current state.

While the existentially challenged Tories convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a clear direction is available. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an priority that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet the previous administration hadn’t got the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on levelling up into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a term I developed and used at the Department for Education to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its purpose is straightforward: social mobility is the means by which we realize equality of opportunity – without removing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, but opportunity is not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economic system. Therefore, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This represented an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in human talent and providing access to chances.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under the Tory administration? Regional development money administered out of the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in investment, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the only engine of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people aim high, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to create a feeling of hope about the years ahead is crucial. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a organization that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what had the potential to be a transformative administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The public held accountable the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the responsibility on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. The current administration has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is gradually replacing the struggling Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an industrial future.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, new terminology. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the similar destiny, both these parties should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. Our nation’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in occupations with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so urgently.