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While the beleaguered Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out so different if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that matters to people across the country: Levelling up. Yet the previous administration did not possess the slightest idea on how to turn the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the concept truly represented.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its purpose is straightforward: social mobility is the method by which we achieve equal access – not by taking chances away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, reflecting the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our education system. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to chances.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up become under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was published almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, financial planning, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the sole mechanism of fair chances, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is crucial for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is important. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to students in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more optimistic about their future than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a party that made that decision? The targeted programme is one example of what had the potential to be a transformative administration strategy on levelling up, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the ruling party learned, failing to deliver of social mobility is the most expensive error any government can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its incompetence but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Now the mandate on social mobility and equal chances has passed to a new administration. The previous terminology has been discarded. The new government has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the hapless incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an industrial past can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the identical outcome, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but effective implementation of more equal results is significantly more difficult. The UK’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in occupations with few results after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss fairer opportunities however much they like. However, which party has the organization that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so urgently.