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As the struggling Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a clear direction remains open. We are in tough times for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out so different if real advances had been made on an priority that is important for people nationwide: Levelling up. Yet Boris Johnson’s government lacked the basic understanding on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. During the initial period after the general election, it debated what the concept even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we achieve fair chances – not by taking prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by extending chances to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

The other key DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, yet chances are not”, represented another a intentional wording, embodying the dual components of a fairness agenda. Initially, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, schools and companies were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an mission about the community framework of our country – investing in human talent and linking them with prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up become under the previous government? A towns fund managed by the DLUHC. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in investment, commerce, financial planning, taxation and in community development. Moreover, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a target for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for young working-class people, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of social mobility, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is essential for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are connected; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the years ahead is crucial. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those areas being up to a significant margin more positive about their prospects than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people perceive their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a political group that did that? This specific initiative is a single instance of what could have been a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Conservatives discovered, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any political party can make. The public held accountable the leadership for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been abandoned. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the struggling Tories, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is much harder. Our nation’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and individuals nationwide without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss fairer opportunities as much as they want. Yet where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires fair chances so badly.