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While the struggling Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a viable path exists at all. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out markedly improved if real advances had been made on an priority that is important for people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But the former leadership lacked the first clue on how to turn the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. During the initial period after the general election, it debated what the concept even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the approach by which we realize fair chances – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending chances to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, but opportunity is not”, served as a deliberate expression, embodying the two parts of a social mobility strategy. Initially, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our education system. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our market. Therefore, schools and companies were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an priority about the community framework of our country – investing in people’s potential and linking them with chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money overseen from the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was launched nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in investment, business, fiscal strategy, tax and in local regeneration. Moreover, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the strongest driver of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the primary source of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is crucial for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the years ahead is critical. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a political group that did that? The targeted programme is a single instance of what had the potential to be a game-changing Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Conservatives found out, failing to deliver of social mobility is the most expensive error any political party can make. Voters held accountable the administration for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is steadily supplanting the hapless Tories, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It suggests that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is one thing, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is far more challenging. The UK’s endemically weak life chances remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in occupations with little to show after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention improved access repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equal access so badly.