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As the existentially challenged Tories meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a clear direction remains open. These are difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out so different if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that is important for people nationwide: Levelling up. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the basic understanding on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term truly represented.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about social mobility. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: social mobility is the method by which we achieve fair chances – without removing chances away from those who already have it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

The other key education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, yet chances are not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, embodying the two parts of a social mobility strategy. First, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an mission about the societal structure of our country – fostering human talent and linking them with prospects.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. Additionally, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a target for leaders across parties – although it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is crucial for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to create a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is important. Analysis by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their future than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the ruling party ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a political group that took that action? The targeted programme is one example of what could have been a game-changing Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the ruling party learned, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any leadership can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its failure but, primarily, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Currently the responsibility on social mobility and equal chances has been taken up by a new administration. The previous terminology has been discarded. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is gradually replacing the struggling incumbents, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an industrial past can revive into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, different language. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is much harder. The UK’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in full-time jobs with little to show after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss fairer opportunities however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, wins. Not only for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has never needed equal access so urgently.