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As the struggling Tories convenes in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. We are in tough times for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that is important for people nationwide: Equal opportunity. However the previous administration lacked the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the concept actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what social mobility signified when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. This became our departmental mantra, and its definition is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we realize equal access – without removing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, yet chances are not”, served as a intentional wording, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. First, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. Thus, education and business were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the social fabric of our country – investing in human talent and linking them with prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up turn into under the Tory administration? Regional development money administered out of the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was released nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in funding, enterprise, economic policy, taxation and in place-making. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of equal opportunity, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are related; that if people dream big, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more optimistic about their prospects than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people perceive their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a political group that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what could have been a transformative administration strategy on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The public held accountable the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

At present the baton on social mobility and equality of opportunity has passed to a new administration. The old slogan has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in my hometown. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is much harder. The UK’s endemically weak social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in full-time jobs with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so urgently.