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While the struggling Tories meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a clear direction exists at all. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that is important for people across the country: Levelling up. But the previous administration hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the concept actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what levelling up entailed when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its definition is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we achieve fair chances – not through reducing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that are without.

The Core Concept

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, but opportunity is not”, served as a intentional wording, embodying the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our market. Thus, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This represented an priority about the social fabric of our country – investing in human talent and providing access to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up turn into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes managed by the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A government strategy was published nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, tax and in local regeneration. And, of course, in schooling, including a university system that has become a punchbag for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the sole mechanism of social mobility, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is vital for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are linked; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For any government, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the years ahead is crucial. Research by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the ruling party ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that took that action? This specific initiative is one example of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that possibility was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories found out, failing to deliver of social mobility is the most expensive error any political party can make. The electorate held accountable the government for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the same fate, each group should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Britain’s endemically weak life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss fairer opportunities as much as they want. Yet where is the organization that has the complete plan on social mobility? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so urgently.