As the original author preached equal opportunity as the critical to Conservative success – but the former Prime Minister neglected the agenda. Now look at us.

While the struggling Tories meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a clear direction remains open. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

It could have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an priority that resonates with people across the country: Social mobility. But the previous administration lacked the slightest idea on how to convert the trendy talk on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the concept even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we attain fair chances – not through reducing chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing options to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

The other key ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, but opportunity is not”, served as a deliberate expression, representing the dual components of a fairness agenda. Initially, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, education and business were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an priority about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was released almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, tax and in place-making. Additionally, in education, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – even though it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the sole mechanism of social mobility, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are linked; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their future.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the ruling party ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a political group that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what could have been a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Tories learned, failing to deliver of social mobility is the most expensive error any government can make. Voters penalized the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Currently the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has been taken up by a Labour government. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing Tories, the alternative party, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in my hometown. It suggests that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the similar destiny, both these parties should learn from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s chronically poor life chances remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in employment with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about equal chances repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on life chances? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so badly.