I championed levelling up as the critical to Conservative electoral victory – but Boris Johnson didn’t do it. See the current state.

While the existentially challenged Tories meets in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. There is uncertainty if a viable path is available. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been so different if real advances had been made on an priority that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. However the former leadership lacked the slightest idea on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the concept actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It served as our departmental mantra, and its meaning is clear: social mobility is the means by which we realize fair chances – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending chances to those that don’t.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared across our country, yet chances are not”, served as a deliberate expression, reflecting the two halves of a social mobility strategy. First, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an mission about the community framework of our country – fostering people’s potential and linking them with opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was published almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in investment, enterprise, fiscal strategy, taxation and in community development. Moreover, in learning, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is crucial for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their future.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those communities vote for a party that did that? The targeted programme is a clear case of what might have become a transformative Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the Tories learned, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. The public punished the administration for its incompetence but, above all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

At present the mandate on life chances and equal chances has been transferred to a new administration. The old slogan has been discarded. Labour has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is gradually replacing the failing incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It promises that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Our nation’s persistently low life chances remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in employment with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss equal chances as much as they want. But where is the organization that has the complete plan on social mobility? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, wins. Not only for their party, but, significantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so desperately.