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While the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a viable path is available. These are difficult days for a political party that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

It could have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an priority that is important for people across the country: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the basic understanding on how to convert the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the general election, it discussed what the term truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It served as our guiding principle, and its purpose is clear: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve equal access – 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, “talent is spread evenly across our country, yet chances are not”, served as a intentional wording, representing the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. First, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This constituted an priority about the social fabric of our country – supporting individual capabilities and connecting them to opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up become under the previous government? Local investment schemes managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in funding, business, financial planning, taxation and in place-making. Additionally, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – even though it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of equal opportunity, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is essential for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For any government, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is critical. Analysis by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a party that made that decision? The targeted programme is a single instance of what could have been a revolutionary Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of fair chances is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. Voters penalized the government for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the mandate on life chances and equal chances has passed to a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the hapless incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It claims that an industrial past can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the identical outcome, each group should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but effective implementation of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low life chances remains the key issue for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in employment with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any genuine belief their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can mention equal chances as much as they want. However, which party has the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, wins. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has never needed fair chances so badly.