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While the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a clear direction remains open. These are difficult days for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But the former leadership lacked the basic understanding on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into policy reality. For the two years after the 2019 election, it debated what the phrase even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. This became our guiding principle, and its definition is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we realize fair chances – without removing prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, but opportunity is not”, represented another a intentional wording, reflecting the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, learning and employment were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an mission about the social fabric of our country – fostering individual capabilities and connecting them to prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was released nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in investment, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in place-making. Moreover, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are connected; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For any government, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the years ahead is crucial. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those areas being up to a significant margin more positive about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those communities vote for a party that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what could have been a game-changing Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate punished the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the mandate on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The current administration has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is gradually replacing the struggling Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I grew up in, in the region. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Our nation’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in occupations with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention equal chances repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? I observe no such party. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has urgently needs equal access so badly.