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As the beleaguered Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a clear direction is available. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an priority that is important for people across the country: Levelling up. Yet the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the concept actually signified.

I found it bizarre, 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 DfE to talk about social mobility. It served as our guiding principle, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the method by which we attain equality of opportunity – without removing chances away from those who already have it, but rather by extending options to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, served as a deliberate expression, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the social fabric of our country – supporting human talent and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money overseen from the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A white paper was launched a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in investment, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for elected officials – although it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of equal opportunity, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is vital for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are connected; that if people dream big, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is important. Analysis by the academic institution at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those communities being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a political group that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the ruling party discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The electorate penalized the government for its failure but, above all, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Currently the mandate on equal opportunity and fair access has been transferred to a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been cast off. Labour has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is gradually replacing the hapless incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I was raised in, in the region. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Same issue, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Britain’s chronically poor social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in occupations with little to show after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. However, which party has the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, crucially, for a complete society that has never needed equal access so badly.