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While the beleaguered Conservative party meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a clear direction exists at all. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But the former leadership lacked the first clue on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the general election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the method by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, represented another a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a fairness agenda. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, schools and companies were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an agenda about the social fabric of our country – supporting human talent and linking them with opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes managed by the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was launched almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, taxation and in community development. And, of course, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the primary source of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is essential for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are related; that if people dream big, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those communities being up to a significant margin more positive about their future than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their destiny.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a organization that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what had the potential to be a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the Tories learned, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any government can make. The public punished the leadership for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

Now the mandate on equal opportunity and equal chances has been transferred to a new administration. The old slogan has been cast off. The new government has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the hapless incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I come from, in my hometown. It claims that an industrial past can revive into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the identical outcome, both these parties should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. The UK’s chronically poor life chances remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with little to show after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about equal chances however much they like. However, which party has the organization that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.