🔗 Share this article As the original author championed social mobility as the key to Tory electoral victory – but Boris Johnson failed to deliver. Now look at us. While the beleaguered Conservative party meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a road forward is available. These are difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters. The Missed Opportunity It could have been so different if real advances had been made on an policy focus that matters to people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. Yet the previous administration hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term truly represented. It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility meant when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. This became our core mission, and its purpose is straightforward: levelling up is the method by which we achieve equal access – not through reducing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending chances to those that lack them. Essential Principle An additional vital ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, however access isn’t”, again was a intentional wording, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economy. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an priority about the community framework of our country – supporting people’s potential and linking them with chances. The Reality of Implementation What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money overseen from the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan. Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in investment, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a target for leaders across parties – although it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for young working-class people, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, operating at scale. The Importance of Aspiration Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to create a feeling of hope about the future is critical. Analysis by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to students in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their prospects than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects. Missed Opportunities Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those regions vote for a party that made that decision? The targeted programme is one example of what had the potential to be a game-changing Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that opportunity was totally misused. Approaches such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The public punished the administration for its failure but, above all, for its broken promises on levelling up. Present Circumstances Now the responsibility on life chances and fair access has been transferred to a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. Labour has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is gradually replacing the hapless Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I come from, in my hometown. It promises that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy. To the electorate, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement. What Must Change Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the same fate, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is much harder. The UK’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in full-time jobs with few results after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have. Politicians can talk about improved access repeatedly. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has never needed equality of opportunity so desperately.