As the original author advocated for social mobility as the key to Conservative success – but the former Prime Minister didn’t do it. Now look at us.

As the existentially challenged Tories meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction remains open. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out markedly improved if real advances had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it discussed what the concept even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its purpose is clear: social mobility is the method by which we realize fair chances – without removing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending opportunities to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

An additional vital education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, however access isn’t”, served as a intentional wording, embodying the two parts of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our market. As a result, schools and companies were key to achieving better life chances. This constituted an mission about the societal structure of our country – supporting individual capabilities and connecting them to opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was released nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. Moreover, in schooling, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the sole mechanism of social mobility, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is crucial for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are related; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is important. Research by the research body at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can rapidly and effectively change how people view their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that did that? The targeted programme is a single instance of what might have become a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. On the other hand, as the Conservatives found out, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The public held accountable the government for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

At present the responsibility on equal opportunity and fair access has been transferred to a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The current administration has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is gradually replacing the struggling incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It promises that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the same fate, both these parties should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low life chances 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 living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can mention equal chances as much as they want. However, which party has 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 complete society that has never needed equality of opportunity so badly.