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As the struggling Conservative party meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a clear direction remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been so different if concrete steps had been made on an priority that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. Yet Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to convert the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the phrase truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. This became our core mission, and its meaning is clear: levelling up is the means by which we achieve equality of opportunity – not through reducing chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing options to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

The other key DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, yet chances are not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two halves of a social mobility strategy. First, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an mission about the societal structure of our country – fostering human talent and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was released almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in investment, business, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. And, of course, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – even though it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the only engine of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is essential for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the future is critical. Research by the academic institution at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their destiny.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a revolutionary Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any government can make. The electorate held accountable the leadership for its failure but, primarily, for its broken promises on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The new government has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an former economic strength can revive into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the identical outcome, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Our nation’s endemically weak social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with little to show after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about improved access repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so urgently.