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As the struggling Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward exists at all. We are in tough times for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an priority that resonates with people across the country: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership lacked the first clue on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into policy reality. During the initial period after the general election, it argued over what the phrase even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up entailed when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our departmental mantra, and its meaning is straightforward: social mobility is the method by which we attain equal access – without removing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

An additional vital education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, however access isn’t”, represented another a deliberate expression, representing the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our market. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This constituted an priority about the social fabric of our country – fostering human talent and providing access to chances.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda become under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was published nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, taxation and in local regeneration. Moreover, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – even though it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are related; that if people dream big, they can attain. For any government, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the future is critical. Analysis by the academic institution at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people feel about their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a party that did that? This specific initiative is a single instance of what could have been a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that possibility was totally misused. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any government can make. Voters penalized the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on life chances and equal chances has passed to a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The current administration has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the failing Tories, the challenger, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an industrial past can revive into an industrial future.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the similar destiny, the respective organizations should understand the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that fair chance language is one thing, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Britain’s endemically weak life chances remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can mention equal chances as much as they want. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has urgently needs equal access so desperately.