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While the existentially challenged Tories meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. These are tough times for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been so different if real advances had been made on an policy focus that is important for people across the country: Levelling up. However Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the first clue on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about life chances. It was our core mission, and its meaning is unambiguous: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve equality of opportunity – not through reducing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, however access isn’t”, represented another a deliberate expression, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. First, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. Therefore, schools and companies were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering individual capabilities and linking them with prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up turn into under the Tory administration? Regional development money managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in investment, business, fiscal strategy, taxation and in local regeneration. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – although it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the only engine of equal opportunity, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is essential for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to create a sense of optimism about the future is critical. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a political group that did that? The targeted programme is a single instance of what had the potential to be a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the costliest mistake any political party can make. Voters punished the government for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

At present the mandate on life chances and equality of opportunity has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is gradually replacing the hapless Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. The UK’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in employment with few results 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 party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, succeeds. Not only for their party, but, crucially, for a whole country that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.