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As the struggling Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a clear direction remains open. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that is important for people across the country: Equal opportunity. But the previous administration did not possess the slightest idea on how to turn the popular slogan on social mobility into policy reality. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our core mission, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the means by which we attain fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a intentional wording, reflecting the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. First, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our schools and colleges. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economy. As a result, education and business were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an priority about the societal structure of our country – fostering individual capabilities and providing access to prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

How did the social mobility agenda become under the Tory administration? A towns fund administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was launched nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, financial planning, revenue and in place-making. Moreover, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the primary source of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is essential for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For any government, being able to create a feeling of hope about the future is crucial. Research by the academic institution at the university and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people feel about their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that did that? The targeted programme is one example of what had the potential to be a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. On the other hand, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the biggest blunder any political party can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

At present the baton on social mobility and fair access has passed to a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the hapless incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the same fate, each group should understand the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but actual achievement of more equal results is much harder. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention equal chances repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the complete plan on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has never needed fair chances so urgently.