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While the struggling Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction is available. We are in tough times for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an priority that matters to people nationwide: Levelling up. Yet the previous administration lacked the slightest idea on how to transform the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the general election, it discussed what the phrase even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its meaning is clear: social mobility is the method by which we realize equal access – without removing chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing opportunities to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, yet chances are not”, represented another a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Second, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economy. As a result, education and business were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an agenda about the community framework of our country – fostering people’s potential and providing access to prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the Tory administration? A towns fund overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was published nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, 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 could have inspired – in investment, business, economic policy, taxation and in place-making. Additionally, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Perhaps the only engine of equal opportunity, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is essential for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are linked; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the years ahead is critical. Analysis by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I launched while in office – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more positive about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their prospects.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those regions vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is one example of what could have been a game-changing Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The electorate punished the government for its incompetence but, above all, for its unfulfilled commitments on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on life chances and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a new administration. The old slogan has been discarded. The current administration has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing Tories, Reform UK, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I grew up in, in the region. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Similar challenge, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but successful delivery of more equal results is much harder. Our nation’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in full-time jobs with little to show after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss improved access however much they like. However, which party has the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for themselves, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.