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As the struggling Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a viable path remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

It could have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But the previous administration lacked the basic understanding on how to convert the trendy talk on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the phrase truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is clear: levelling up is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

The other key DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, however access isn’t”, represented another a purposeful phrase, embodying the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. First, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our market. Therefore, schools and companies were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an priority about the social fabric of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up become under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes overseen from the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was published almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, commerce, fiscal strategy, tax and in place-making. Additionally, in education, including a university system that has become a punchbag for elected officials – although it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Possibly the primary source of social mobility, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is essential for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are linked; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to create a sense of optimism about the future is critical. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to students in those communities being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its new leader election, in September 2022, the ruling party ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a political group that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what might have become a game-changing Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Tories learned, breaking the promise of fair chances is the costliest mistake any government can make. The public penalized the administration for its failure but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Now the responsibility on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the failing Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I come from, in my hometown. It suggests that an industrial past can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, the respective organizations should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s endemically weak social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with few results after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss improved access as much as they want. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for their party, but, crucially, for a complete society that has desperately requires equal access so badly.