As the original author championed equal opportunity as the key to Conservative success – but Boris Johnson neglected the agenda. See the current state.

While the existentially challenged Tories meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a road forward exists at all. These are tough times for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that matters to people across the country: Levelling up. But the former leadership lacked the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on levelling up into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the phrase actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what social mobility entailed when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It was our core mission, and its purpose is clear: levelling up is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

The Core Concept

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, embodying the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, education and business were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an mission about the social fabric of our country – fostering people’s potential and connecting them to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up become under the Tory administration? Regional development money overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was launched almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches 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 capital, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in local regeneration. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the primary source of fair chances, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is essential for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are related; that if people aspire, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the future is important. Studies by the academic institution at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those areas being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a political group that made that decision? The targeted programme is a single instance of what might have become a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the ruling party discovered, failing to deliver of social mobility is the biggest blunder any government can make. Voters punished the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has been transferred 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 party that is increasingly displacing the hapless incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the same fate, both these parties should understand the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s chronically poor social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. But where is the organization that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I see none. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not only for their organization, but, significantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so urgently.