As the original author advocated for social mobility as the essential to Tory success – but Boris Johnson failed to deliver. See the current state.

As the beleaguered Tories gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path remains open. These are difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been so different if real advances had been made on an agenda that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the term actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is clear: levelling up is the method by which we attain equal access – not through reducing opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding chances to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, yet chances are not”, again was a deliberate expression, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. Thus, education and business were essential to achieving better life chances. This constituted an agenda about the societal structure of our country – fostering human talent and connecting them to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up become under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A white paper was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in investment, enterprise, fiscal strategy, tax and in local regeneration. Moreover, in schooling, including a university system that has become a punchbag for elected officials – even though it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For any government, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Analysis by the academic institution at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those areas being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their future than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their destiny.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a single instance of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any political party can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been cast off. The current administration has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It claims that an industrial past can reincarnate into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the similar destiny, both these parties should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s endemically weak life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss fairer opportunities as much as they want. But where is the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires fair chances so urgently.