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While the struggling Tories convenes in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people across the country: Levelling up. But Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the first clue on how to turn the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about life chances. It was our core mission, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the method by which we attain fair chances – without removing opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, represented another a intentional wording, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, potential shared equally but not developed consistently through our education system. Second, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were crucial to achieving better life chances. This constituted an mission about the social fabric of our country – fostering individual capabilities and connecting them to chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes administered out of the the relevant ministry. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was published nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in capital, business, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – although it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the sole mechanism of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is essential for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are related; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the future is important. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their destiny.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a political group that made that decision? The targeted programme is one example of what could have been a transformative Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Conservatives found out, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate penalized the government for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

At present the responsibility on social mobility and equal chances has been transferred to a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is gradually replacing the struggling Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It promises that an industrial past can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but effective implementation of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s persistently low life chances remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in full-time jobs with few results after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss equal chances however much they like. Yet where is the organization that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so badly.