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As the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a road forward exists at all. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out so different if real advances had been made on an priority that is important for people nationwide: Social mobility. However the former leadership did not possess the basic understanding on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it discussed what the phrase truly represented.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is clear: social mobility is the method by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding chances to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, again was a intentional wording, embodying the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. Therefore, learning and employment were key to achieving better life chances. This was an mission about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda turn into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A white paper was published almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw current strategies relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in capital, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in local regeneration. Moreover, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the only engine of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the ruling party ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a political group that took that action? The targeted programme is a single instance of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The electorate held accountable the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the hapless Tories, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an industrial future.

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

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the similar destiny, both these parties should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but successful delivery of more equal results is much harder. Our nation’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in occupations with little to show after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss equal chances however much they like. Yet where is the party that has the complete plan on life chances? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not just for themselves, but, crucially, for a whole country that has desperately requires equal access so badly.