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As the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path is available. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people across the country: Levelling up. Yet the previous administration lacked the basic understanding on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the general election, it argued over what the phrase even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we attain fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a intentional wording, reflecting the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economic system. Thus, schools and companies were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an priority about the societal structure of our country – fostering human talent and connecting them to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. A white paper was published a significant period after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in investment, enterprise, 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 most powerful engine of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is vital for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to create a feeling of hope about the future is crucial. Research by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more positive about their prospects than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a organization that took that action? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what could have been a game-changing Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the ruling party learned, breaking the promise of social mobility is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate penalized the administration for its failure but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

At present the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been cast off. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is steadily supplanting the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an former economic strength can be reborn into an industrial future.

For voters, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that fair chance language is easy to say, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s endemically weak life chances remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about fairer opportunities as much as they want. However, which party has the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, wins. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equal access so desperately.