As the original author advocated for social mobility as the critical to Tory electoral victory – but Boris Johnson didn’t do it. Observe the consequences.

As the existentially challenged Tories meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a viable path is available. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an priority that resonates with people nationwide: Levelling up. Yet the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to transform the trendy talk on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it debated what the phrase actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told 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 DfE to talk about life chances. It was our core mission, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – without removing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding options to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, however access isn’t”, served as a deliberate expression, embodying the dual components of a fairness agenda. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by employers or our market. Therefore, education and business were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an priority about the societal structure of our country – supporting people’s potential and connecting them to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A white paper was launched nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in funding, commerce, financial planning, tax and in community development. Moreover, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the only engine of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is crucial for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are linked; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is critical. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to young people 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 sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those areas vote for a organization that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the ruling party learned, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The public penalized the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Now the baton on social mobility and equal chances has been transferred to a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the struggling incumbents, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an former economic strength can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the similar destiny, each group should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. The UK’s endemically weak equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss fairer opportunities repeatedly. However, which party has the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has never needed fair chances so badly.