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As the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a clear direction remains open. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out vastly better if real advances had been made on an agenda that matters to people across the country: Social mobility. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the slightest idea on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. For the two years after the general election, it debated what the concept even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the approach by which we realize equal access – not through reducing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, reflecting the dual components of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, learning and employment were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an agenda about the social fabric of our country – supporting human talent and linking them with prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in investment, enterprise, financial planning, tax and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a target for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the primary source of fair chances, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is vital for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aim high, they can attain. For any government, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their future than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that took that action? This specific initiative is a clear case of what could have been a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories learned, failing to deliver of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. The public punished the government for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on life chances and equal chances has been transferred to a opposition party. The old slogan has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the struggling Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I come from, in my hometown. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in employment with few results after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can mention fairer opportunities as much as they want. Yet where is the party that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so urgently.