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As the existentially challenged Tories gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward remains open. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

Things could have turned out markedly improved if real advances had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Levelling up. Yet Boris Johnson’s government lacked the basic understanding on how to turn the trendy talk on social mobility into policy reality. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the term actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our guiding principle, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

An additional vital education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a intentional wording, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our economic system. Therefore, schools and companies were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in human talent and linking them with opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Local investment schemes administered out of the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in investment, commerce, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Possibly the only engine of social mobility, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is crucial for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that effort and reward are linked; that if people aim high, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the future is important. Studies by the research body at the university and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their future than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a political group that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what might have become a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Conservatives discovered, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any government can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its failure but, primarily, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the mandate on life chances and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is steadily supplanting the failing Tories, Reform UK, 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 promises that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the same fate, each group should understand the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. The UK’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in occupations with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about equal chances repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on social mobility? I see none. The first to achieve this, wins. Not only for their organization, but, crucially, for a complete society that has urgently needs equal access so urgently.