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While the struggling Tories gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty 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

Things could have turned out so different if concrete steps had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Levelling up. Yet the former leadership hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we achieve equality of opportunity – not through reducing opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, but opportunity is not”, again was a purposeful phrase, embodying the two parts of a fairness agenda. First, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. As a result, schools and companies were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an mission about the social fabric of our country – fostering human talent and linking them with prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in funding, commerce, financial planning, revenue and in community development. Additionally, in education, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the sole mechanism of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is crucial for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is crucial. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those areas being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their prospects than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is a single instance of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate held accountable the leadership for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Currently the responsibility on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a Labour government. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the struggling incumbents, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an industrial future.

For the public, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is one thing, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. The UK’s endemically weak social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with few results after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss fairer opportunities however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so desperately.