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While the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a viable path is available. These are tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership lacked the basic understanding on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the concept actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our guiding principle, and its meaning is unambiguous: social mobility is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – without removing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by providing options to those that are without.

The Core Concept

Another crucial ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, but opportunity is not”, represented another a intentional wording, reflecting the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an priority about the societal structure of our country – fostering human talent and providing access to chances.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Regional development money administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was published nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in capital, enterprise, financial planning, revenue and in local regeneration. Moreover, in schooling, including a university system that has become a target for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For any government, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the years ahead is crucial. Research by the academic institution at the university and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those communities being up to a significant margin more positive about their future than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those communities vote for a party that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what could have been a revolutionary Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Conservatives learned, failing to deliver of fair chances is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate punished the government for its incompetence but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has passed to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been abandoned. The current administration has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is increasingly displacing the hapless incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the same fate, both these parties should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s chronically poor social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in employment with few results after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about improved access repeatedly. Yet where is the organization that has the complete plan on life chances? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so desperately.