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While the struggling Conservative party meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. 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 electorate.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an priority that matters to people across the country: Levelling up. However Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the slightest idea on how to convert the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our guiding principle, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the means by which we realize fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending options to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, but opportunity is not”, again was a purposeful phrase, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. First, potential shared equally but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economy. Thus, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This represented an priority about the social fabric of our country – supporting individual capabilities and connecting them to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes managed by the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in investment, enterprise, economic policy, revenue and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a target for elected officials – even though it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the sole mechanism of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is essential for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aim high, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can rapidly and effectively change how people view their future.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, 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 party that did that? The targeted programme is one example of what might have become a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any government can make. The electorate held accountable the government for its failure but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Currently the baton on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The new government has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the failing Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an former economic strength can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the identical outcome, both these parties should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is one thing, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in occupations with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about equal chances however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for themselves, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs equal access so badly.