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As the existentially challenged Tories gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a road forward remains open. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

Things could have turned out vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. However the previous administration hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our core mission, and its definition is straightforward: levelling up is the method by which we achieve equal access – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending options to those that are without.

Essential Principle

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two halves of a fairness agenda. First, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Second, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. As a result, schools and companies were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up turn into under the previous government? Local investment schemes administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was released almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in investment, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. Moreover, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the primary source of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is crucial for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are linked; that if people aim high, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to create a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is important. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those areas being up to a significant margin more positive about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those regions vote for a political group that did that? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what might have become a transformative Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the most expensive error any government can make. The public punished the administration for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a Labour government. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is steadily supplanting the hapless Tories, the alternative party, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For voters, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Our nation’s chronically poor social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in employment with few results after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention fairer opportunities as much as they want. However, which party has the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, significantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so desperately.