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As the struggling Conservative party meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a viable path exists at all. These are challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that is important for people throughout the UK: Social mobility. But Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to convert the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its meaning is clear: levelling up is the means by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, represented another a deliberate expression, reflecting the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Second, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economy. Therefore, education and business were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering human talent and connecting them to chances.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? A towns fund overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in funding, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in local regeneration. Moreover, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – even though it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the primary source of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For any government, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is important. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those communities vote for a political group that did that? This specific initiative is one example of what might have become a revolutionary Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Conservatives found out, failing to deliver of fair chances is the costliest mistake any government can make. The public held accountable the leadership for its incompetence but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Currently the responsibility on life chances and equality of opportunity has passed to a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The new government has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is gradually replacing the failing incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I grew up in, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, 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 Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is much harder. The UK’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with few results after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can mention improved access repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equal access so urgently.