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As the beleaguered Tories gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward remains open. These are tough times for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the slightest idea on how to turn the trendy talk on levelling up into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it discussed what the phrase actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up entailed when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the method by which we attain fair chances – without removing prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding options to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. Initially, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our schools and colleges. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. Thus, education and business were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an mission about the societal structure of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda become under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was launched nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in investment, commerce, fiscal strategy, taxation and in local regeneration. Additionally, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – although it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the sole mechanism of social mobility, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is crucial for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For any government, being able to instil a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those communities being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can rapidly and effectively change how people view their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a organization that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a transformative administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Conservatives found out, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any leadership can make. Voters penalized the administration for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been abandoned. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an industrial past can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should understand the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Our nation’s endemically weak social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in occupations with few results after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about fairer opportunities repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so desperately.