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As the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a clear direction remains open. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been so different if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that resonates with people nationwide: Levelling up. However the former leadership did not possess the basic understanding on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its meaning is clear: social mobility is the means by which we achieve equality of opportunity – without removing prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, but opportunity is not”, again was a deliberate expression, representing the dual components of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our market. Thus, schools and companies were essential to achieving better life chances. This constituted an priority about the social fabric of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the the relevant ministry. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in funding, commerce, economic policy, taxation and in place-making. Moreover, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a target for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people aspire, they can attain. For any government, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their destiny.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a political group that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what had the potential to be a revolutionary administration strategy on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any government can make. Voters punished the leadership for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

At present the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is gradually replacing the struggling Tories, the alternative party, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, each group should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is one thing, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. Britain’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in employment with little to show after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about improved access as much as they want. However, which party has the organization that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for their organization, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so badly.