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As the existentially challenged Tories gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path is available. These are difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an priority that resonates with people throughout the UK: Levelling up. Yet the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to turn the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the concept even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our guiding principle, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the means by which we achieve equal access – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that don’t.

The Core Concept

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, but opportunity is not”, again was a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, potential shared equally but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economic system. Thus, learning and employment were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering human talent and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up turn into under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the the relevant ministry. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was published almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in investment, enterprise, fiscal strategy, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is essential for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are connected; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For any government, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Analysis by the research body at the university and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to students in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more optimistic about their future than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their prospects.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its new leader election, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a organization that did that? This specific initiative is one example of what might have become a revolutionary administration strategy on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Conservatives found out, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its failure but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is gradually replacing the hapless Tories, Reform UK, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For the public, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, different language. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, the respective organizations should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but effective implementation of more equal results is far more challenging. Britain’s chronically poor social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in employment with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can mention improved access repeatedly. But where is the organization that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for themselves, but, crucially, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so badly.