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As the beleaguered Tories convenes in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a clear direction is available. These are tough times for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people across the country: Equal opportunity. Yet the previous administration lacked the first clue on how to transform the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the approach by which we attain equality of opportunity – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending opportunities to those that are without.

The Core Concept

Another crucial education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, served as a intentional wording, reflecting the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. First, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Second, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our market. As a result, schools and companies were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an mission about the social fabric of our country – investing in people’s potential and linking them with chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up turn into under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A white paper was launched almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in investment, commerce, financial planning, taxation and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a target for elected officials – even though it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is essential for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people aspire, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the future is critical. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their future than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its new leader election, in that period, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a political group that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what could have been a transformative Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the ruling party discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any government can make. The electorate punished the government for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and equal chances has passed to a Labour government. The old slogan has been cast off. The new government has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the hapless Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Same issue, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the similar destiny, each group should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is one thing, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in employment with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention improved access as much as they want. However, which party has the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires fair chances so badly.