As the original author preached social mobility as the key to Tory success – but the former Prime Minister didn’t do it. See the current state.

As the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a viable path remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

What Could Have Been

It could have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an agenda that is important for people nationwide: Levelling up. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the slightest idea on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into policy reality. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what levelling up signified when we initially discussed about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. It served as our departmental mantra, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the method by which we realize fair chances – not by taking opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing opportunities to those that are without.

The Core Concept

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, yet chances are not”, represented another a deliberate expression, embodying the two halves of a social mobility strategy. Initially, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were crucial to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an priority about the community framework of our country – fostering individual capabilities and providing access to opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was launched a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged 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, financial planning, tax and in place-making. Additionally, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a target for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Maybe the only engine of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Hope 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 achieve. For political leadership, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is crucial. Studies by the research body at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a political group that did that? This specific initiative is one example of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that opportunity was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the ruling party found out, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. The electorate held accountable the administration for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

The Current Landscape

At present the baton on social mobility and equality of opportunity has passed to a opposition party. The old slogan has been abandoned. The current administration has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the struggling Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an former economic strength can revive into an revitalized economy.

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

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the similar destiny, the respective organizations should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that fair chance language is easy to say, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the key issue for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in occupations with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss equal chances however much they like. But where is the party that has the thorough strategy on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.