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As the struggling Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a viable path remains open. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

It could have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the first clue on how to turn the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it debated what the term truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I’d already told Johnson what levelling up entailed when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the method by which we realize equal access – not by taking prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending opportunities to those that are without.

Essential Principle

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our schools and colleges. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, education and business were key 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.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was published nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in capital, commerce, fiscal strategy, tax and in place-making. Additionally, in schooling, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – even though it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is vital for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are linked; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For any government, being able to create a sense of optimism about the tomorrow is crucial. Analysis by the research body at the university and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those areas being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in that period, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those areas vote for a organization that took that action? The targeted programme is a clear case of what could have been a transformative administration strategy on social mobility, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Conservatives learned, breaking the promise of social mobility is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The public held accountable the government for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Present Circumstances

Now the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing Tories, the alternative party, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I grew up in, in the region. It suggests that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the identical outcome, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but actual achievement of more equal results is significantly more difficult. Britain’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in full-time jobs with little to show after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can mention improved access repeatedly. Yet where is the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, wins. Not only for themselves, but, crucially, for a complete society that has never needed equal access so desperately.