🔗 Share this article

As the existentially challenged Tories convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a viable path exists at all. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been so different if concrete steps had been made on an priority that matters to people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the slightest idea on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. For the two years after the general election, it debated what the concept even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. It served as our guiding principle, and its meaning is unambiguous: levelling up is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – without removing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by extending chances to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the dual components of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by employers or our economic system. Therefore, education and business were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an priority about the community framework of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes managed by the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in funding, enterprise, fiscal strategy, revenue and in community development. Additionally, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a target for politicians of all stripes – although it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Possibly the sole mechanism of social mobility, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that dedication and outcome are linked; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For any government, being able to create a sense of optimism about the future is important. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their future than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people view their future.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a clear case of what could have been a transformative Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the ruling party discovered, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any government can make. Voters punished the administration for its incompetence but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

At present the mandate on life chances and equality of opportunity has passed to a new administration. The old slogan has been abandoned. Labour has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the struggling Tories, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I come from, in the region. It claims that an former economic strength can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the similar destiny, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but successful delivery of fairer outcomes is much harder. Britain’s persistently low life chances remains the key issue for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those working hard in occupations 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 advance in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about fairer opportunities however much they like. But where is the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so urgently.