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While the beleaguered Tories gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a road forward remains open. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people throughout the UK: Social mobility. But the previous administration did not possess the slightest idea on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the concept actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its meaning is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we attain equal access – without removing opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by extending options to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, but opportunity is not”, again was a deliberate expression, representing the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our market. Thus, schools and companies were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in human talent and providing access to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was published nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in investment, business, economic policy, tax and in community development. Moreover, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is essential for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people dream big, they can attain. For any government, being able to create a feeling of hope about the future is important. Studies by the research body at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more optimistic about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a clear case of what might have become a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the costliest mistake any government can make. Voters penalized the administration for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and equal chances has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is gradually replacing the hapless incumbents, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It promises that an industrial past can revive into an industrial future.

For the public, it must seem like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is much harder. Our nation’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in employment with little to show after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their children 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 comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has never needed fair chances so badly.