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While the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a viable path is available. These are difficult days for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that matters to people across the country: Levelling up. But the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the term actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It served as our core mission, and its purpose is straightforward: social mobility is the approach by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, embodying the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. First, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our schools and colleges. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economic system. Therefore, schools and companies were key to achieving better life chances. This was an priority about the societal structure of our country – fostering human talent and linking them with prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? A towns fund managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was launched a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in capital, business, economic policy, revenue and in local regeneration. And, of course, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the primary source of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is vital for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the future is critical. Studies by the research body at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those communities being up to a significant margin more positive about their future than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those communities vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is one example of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, failing to deliver of social mobility is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The public held accountable the government for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been abandoned. The new government has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the struggling Tories, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It promises that an industrial past can revive into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the same fate, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is one thing, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. The UK’s endemically weak life chances remains the key issue for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in occupations with few results after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about fairer opportunities repeatedly. However, which party has the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, wins. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.