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As the beleaguered Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a road forward remains open. These are difficult days for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Social mobility. But the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up entailed when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the means by which we achieve equal access – not through reducing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, served as a deliberate expression, reflecting the two parts of a fairness agenda. First, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were crucial to achieving better life chances. This was an mission about the societal structure of our country – investing in human talent and providing access to chances.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up become under the previous government? Regional development money administered out of the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was published a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in funding, business, economic policy, taxation and in local regeneration. And, of course, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a target for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the only engine of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is vital for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the years ahead is crucial. Studies by the research body at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their prospects than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their destiny.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a organization that took that action? The targeted programme is a single instance of what could have been a transformative administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories learned, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any government can make. The public punished the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on life chances and equality of opportunity has passed to a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The new government has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an industrial past can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the similar destiny, each group should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. Britain’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in occupations with few results after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss equal chances as much as they want. Yet where is the party that has the complete plan on life chances? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, wins. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so badly.