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As the struggling Tories convenes in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. These are challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

It could have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an agenda that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership did not possess the slightest idea on how to transform the trendy talk on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the general election, it debated what the term even meant.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its definition is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we achieve equality of opportunity – without removing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that are without.

The Core Concept

Another crucial education department term we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, but opportunity is not”, served as a intentional wording, embodying the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Second, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and providing access to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up turn into under the Tory administration? Local investment schemes managed by the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was released a significant period after the leadership change, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, business, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. And, of course, in education, including a university system that has become a punchbag for elected officials – even though it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for young working-class people, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the only engine of social mobility, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people aim high, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the future is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those areas vote for a political group that did that? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what could have been a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. Voters punished the leadership for its incompetence but, above all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

Now the responsibility on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the failing incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I come from, in the region. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

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

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the same fate, each group should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s chronically poor life chances remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in full-time jobs with few results after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention equal chances repeatedly. But where is the party that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs fair chances so desperately.