As the original author championed equal opportunity as the critical to Tory electoral victory – but the former Prime Minister failed to deliver. Observe the consequences.

While the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a road forward remains open. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

It could have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an priority that is important for people across the country: Social mobility. Yet the former leadership did not possess the slightest idea on how to transform the popular slogan on levelling up into policy reality. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility signified when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its meaning is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we attain 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 across our country, but opportunity is not”, again was a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a social mobility strategy. First, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in individual capabilities and providing access to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? Regional development money managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in funding, enterprise, financial planning, tax and in community development. And, of course, in education, including a university system that has become a target for leaders across parties – although it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is essential for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are linked; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the academic institution at the university and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their prospects than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those regions vote for a political group that did that? The targeted programme is one example of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the ruling party learned, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The public penalized the leadership for its failure but, primarily, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

At present the mandate on life chances and equal chances has passed to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is gradually replacing the hapless Tories, the alternative party, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I come from, in my hometown. It suggests that an industrial past can be reborn into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the similar destiny, both these parties should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Britain’s persistently low life chances remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in employment with few results after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Politicians can mention improved access however much they like. But where is the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I see none. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for themselves, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has urgently needs fair chances so desperately.