🔗 Share this article

While the beleaguered Tories gathers in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a clear direction remains open. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been so different if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that matters to people across the country: Equal opportunity. Yet the previous administration hadn’t got the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our guiding principle, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we achieve equal access – not by taking opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by extending chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

The other key education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two halves of a social mobility strategy. Initially, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our market. Therefore, learning and employment were crucial to achieving better life chances. This was an priority about the societal structure of our country – investing in human talent and linking them with chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? A towns fund administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was released almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in community development. Additionally, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the only engine of social mobility, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is crucial for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is crucial. Studies by the academic institution at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their future than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their prospects.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is one example of what could have been a transformative Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that chance was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Tories found out, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any leadership can make. Voters punished the government for its failure but, primarily, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the mandate on life chances and fair access has been transferred to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an revitalized economy.

For the public, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, different language. 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 social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s endemically weak social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with little to show after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any real hope their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can talk about fairer opportunities however much they like. However, which party has the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not just for themselves, but, significantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.