As the original author advocated for social mobility as the key to Conservative success – but the former Prime Minister neglected the agenda. See the current state.

While the existentially challenged Tories meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a road forward is available. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

It could have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an agenda that is important for people across the country: Social mobility. Yet the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on levelling up into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it discussed what the phrase truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a concept I originated 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 method by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding options to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, again was a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our market. Thus, education and business were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This was an priority about the social fabric of our country – fostering human talent and connecting them to prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was released almost thirty-six months after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in investment, business, economic policy, taxation and in community development. Additionally, in schooling, including a university system that has become a punchbag for elected officials – even though it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the only engine of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is crucial for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people aspire, they can attain. For any government, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the years ahead is crucial. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their future than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a political group that did that? This specific initiative is a single instance of what could have been a transformative administration strategy on levelling up, but that opportunity was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the most expensive error any government can make. The electorate penalized the government for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Now the responsibility on life chances and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a opposition party. The old slogan has been cast off. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is gradually replacing the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It claims that an former economic strength can revive into an industrial future.

For voters, it must seem like a déjà vu experience. Same issue, different language. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the similar destiny, each group should learn from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but effective implementation of more equal results is far more challenging. The UK’s endemically weak life chances remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring in employment with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any genuine belief their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss improved access repeatedly. But where is the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, succeeds. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a complete society that has urgently needs equality of opportunity so badly.