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As the existentially challenged Conservative party meets 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 is available. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that is important for people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to transform the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the general election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up signified when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It was our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the means by which we achieve equality of opportunity – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

Another crucial education department term we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, yet chances are not”, again was a purposeful phrase, embodying the dual components of a fairness agenda. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, learning and employment were crucial to achieving better life chances. This represented an mission about the social fabric of our country – investing in individual capabilities and providing access to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? A towns fund overseen from the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A white paper was launched a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went unpursued, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in capital, enterprise, financial planning, revenue and in place-making. And, of course, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is crucial for our country to succeed. 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 foster a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is critical. Studies by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, 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 neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their prospects than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a organization that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate penalized the government for its failure but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been cast off. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing Tories, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the same fate, each group should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but actual achievement of more equal results is far more challenging. The UK’s chronically poor social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any real hope their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about fairer opportunities repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for themselves, but, significantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so urgently.