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While the struggling Tories gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a viable path is available. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that matters to people across the country: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership did not possess the basic understanding on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric 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 social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we achieve equality of opportunity – not by taking opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, yet chances are not”, again was a deliberate expression, reflecting the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economy. Thus, education and business were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an mission about the community framework of our country – investing in people’s potential and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Local investment schemes overseen from the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A white paper was launched nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in investment, commerce, fiscal strategy, taxation and in local regeneration. Moreover, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the only engine of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to create a sense of optimism about the years ahead is crucial. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those communities being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their future.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a party that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what could have been a revolutionary Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. On the other hand, as the Conservatives discovered, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate held accountable the administration for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

Now the responsibility on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The new government has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the failing Tories, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the similar destiny, both these parties should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in full-time jobs with few results after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. But where is the party that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so badly.