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While the beleaguered Tories gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a viable path exists at all. These are difficult days for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an priority that is important for people nationwide: Levelling up. But the previous administration lacked the slightest idea on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the term actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It served as our core mission, and its definition is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we realize fair chances – not by taking chances away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

Essential Principle

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, but opportunity is not”, again was a deliberate expression, embodying the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our education system. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economic system. As a result, education and business were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an mission about the social fabric of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes administered out of the the relevant ministry. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released a significant period after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in investment, business, financial planning, taxation and in community development. Additionally, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a target for leaders across parties – although it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is essential for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is crucial. Analysis by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their prospects.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a organization that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what had the potential to be a revolutionary administration strategy on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories learned, failing to deliver of social mobility is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate punished the administration for its incompetence but, above all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

Currently the baton on social mobility and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a new administration. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing Tories, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is easy to say, but successful delivery of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Britain’s endemically weak life chances remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in employment with few results after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss fairer opportunities however much they like. 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 themselves, but, significantly, for a whole country that has never needed equal access so badly.