As the original author preached social mobility as the critical to Conservative electoral victory – but the former Prime Minister didn’t do it. Now look at us.

While the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path remains open. These are tough times for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that matters to people across the country: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the slightest idea on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the concept actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up signified when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about social mobility. It served as our core mission, and its purpose is clear: social mobility is the approach by which we realize fair chances – without removing opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our schools and colleges. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economic system. Thus, education and business were crucial to achieving better life chances. This constituted an mission about the social fabric of our country – investing in individual capabilities and linking them with opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up become under the previous government? A towns fund administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went ignored, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, taxation and in place-making. Moreover, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for elected officials – even though it remains the strongest driver of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the primary source of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is essential for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are related; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For any government, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is critical. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in September 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a organization that did that? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Conservatives discovered, failing to deliver of social mobility is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate penalized the government for its failure but, primarily, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

Now the responsibility on social mobility and fair access has been taken up by a Labour government. The previous terminology has been cast off. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I come from, in my hometown. It suggests that an industrial past can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For voters, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the similar destiny, each group should take lessons from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s chronically poor social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with young people 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 real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss improved access however much they like. Yet where is the organization that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not only for their organization, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so badly.