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As the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a road forward remains open. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

It could have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that is important for people across the country: Social mobility. But the previous administration did not possess the basic understanding on how to turn the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the phrase even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. This became our departmental mantra, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – not by taking prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by extending chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

The other key education department term we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, again was a deliberate expression, embodying the two halves of a fairness agenda. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economy. Thus, schools and companies were crucial to achieving better life chances. This was an mission about the societal structure of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under the Tory administration? A towns fund managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was launched a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, business, financial planning, taxation and in place-making. And, of course, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for young working-class people, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the sole mechanism of fair chances, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is vital for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the future is crucial. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their future than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those regions vote for a organization that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what had the potential to be a revolutionary Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Conservatives learned, failing to deliver of fair chances is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. The electorate penalized the administration for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the baton on equal opportunity and equal chances has passed to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is steadily supplanting the failing Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I come from, in the region. It promises that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, different language. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the similar destiny, each group should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is much harder. The UK’s endemically weak social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in employment with little to show after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss equal chances however much they like. However, which party has the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equal access so urgently.