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As the beleaguered Tories convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction is available. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that is important for people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the slightest idea on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the concept even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up signified when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It was our departmental mantra, and its definition is straightforward: social mobility is the approach by which we attain fair chances – not through reducing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by providing opportunities to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a deliberate expression, reflecting the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. Thus, learning and employment were crucial to achieving better life chances. This constituted an priority about the social fabric of our country – supporting individual capabilities and linking them with opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

How did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was published a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in community development. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a target for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the only engine of fair chances, functioning widely.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is essential for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the years ahead is important. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to students in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their future than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in that period, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a political group that took that action? The targeted programme is one example of what could have been a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of social mobility is the biggest blunder any government can make. Voters punished the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its failed pledges on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Now the responsibility on social mobility and equal chances has been taken up by a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the failing incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, different language. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but actual achievement of more equal results is far more challenging. The UK’s chronically poor social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in occupations with little to show after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention improved access however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the complete plan on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, wins. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs fair chances so urgently.