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While the struggling Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a road forward exists at all. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an priority that resonates with people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the slightest idea on how to convert the popular slogan on levelling up into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it debated what the term truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up meant when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its meaning is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we realize equal access – not by taking prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding chances to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a intentional wording, embodying the two parts of a social mobility strategy. First, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Second, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economy. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an mission about the community framework of our country – investing in people’s potential and providing access to chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up become under the Tory administration? A towns fund administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was released a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in capital, business, economic policy, revenue and in local regeneration. And, of course, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a target for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is crucial for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to create a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Research by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a party that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what had the potential to be a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the most expensive error any political party can make. The electorate punished the government for its incompetence but, above all, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Currently the responsibility on life chances and equal chances has been transferred to a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I grew up in, in the region. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the similar destiny, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but effective implementation of more equal results is far more challenging. The UK’s endemically weak social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about equal chances repeatedly. However, which party has the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for their party, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.