As the original author advocated for levelling up as the essential to Tory electoral victory – but the former Prime Minister failed to deliver. Now look at us.

As the beleaguered Tories meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction is available. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an priority that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. Yet Boris Johnson’s government lacked the basic understanding 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 phrase even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our guiding principle, and its definition is straightforward: levelling up is the method by which we attain fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending options to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

The other key ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, but opportunity is not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, embodying the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. First, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, learning and employment were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an priority about the community framework of our country – investing in people’s potential and connecting them to chances.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was released a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in capital, business, economic policy, taxation and in community development. And, of course, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for young working-class people, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the primary source of social mobility, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is essential for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are linked; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to create a feeling of hope about the future is important. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Conservatives discovered, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. The public punished the leadership for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the mandate on equal opportunity and fair access has been taken up by a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the hapless Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It suggests that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must seem like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, different language. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the similar destiny, the respective organizations should learn from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s chronically poor social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in occupations with few results after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss fairer opportunities as much as they want. But where is the party that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for themselves, but, crucially, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so desperately.