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As the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a viable path exists at all. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an agenda that resonates with people nationwide: Social mobility. However the previous administration lacked the first clue on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into policy reality. During the initial period after the general election, it argued over what the term truly represented.

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. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. It served as our core mission, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we attain fair chances – not by taking prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

The other key education department term we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an mission about the community framework of our country – supporting individual capabilities and linking them with opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in capital, business, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. And, of course, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are linked; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For any government, being able to create a feeling of hope about the future is crucial. Studies by the research body at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those areas vote for a organization that did that? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what could have been a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Conservatives discovered, breaking the promise of social mobility is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate punished the leadership for its failure but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

At present the responsibility on life chances and equality of opportunity has passed to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is increasingly displacing the struggling Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the same fate, each group should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. The UK’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can mention equal chances repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, wins. Not only for themselves, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so badly.