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As the beleaguered Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a viable path is available. These are tough times for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Social mobility. But the previous administration hadn’t got the first clue on how to turn the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the 2019 election, it debated what the phrase actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a term I developed and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. This became our departmental mantra, and its definition is straightforward: levelling up is the method by which we achieve equal access – not by taking prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding options to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, but opportunity is not”, represented another a intentional wording, representing the dual components of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our market. Thus, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This constituted an mission about the social fabric of our country – supporting human talent and connecting them to chances.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda become under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was released a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in investment, business, fiscal strategy, taxation and in place-making. Moreover, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – although it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the primary source of fair chances, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are related; that if people dream big, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those communities being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their future than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people view their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those areas vote for a organization that took that action? The targeted programme is one example of what could have been a transformative administration strategy on levelling up, but that possibility was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. Voters held accountable the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

Currently the mandate on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been cast off. The new government has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the struggling incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in the region. It promises that an former economic strength can revive into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, each group should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Britain’s persistently low social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with few results after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. Yet where is the political group that has the complete plan on social mobility? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for their organization, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so urgently.