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As the struggling Conservative party gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a viable path remains open. These are difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

It could have been so different if real advances had been made on an priority that resonates with people throughout the UK: Social mobility. But Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the slightest idea on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. For the two years after the general election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. This became our core mission, and its purpose is straightforward: social mobility is the means by which we attain fair chances – without removing chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by extending chances to those that are without.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, served as a deliberate expression, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. First, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our education system. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our market. Therefore, schools and companies were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in human talent and connecting them to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

How did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the DLUHC. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was launched a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went unpursued, as well as all the change that it might have driven – in investment, business, financial planning, revenue and in community development. And, of course, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – although it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the sole mechanism of fair chances, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Aspiration is essential for our country to succeed. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For any government, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is critical. Analysis by the research body at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their destiny.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a party that did that? This specific initiative is a clear case of what had the potential to be a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Conservatives found out, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Currently the mandate on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. Labour has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is increasingly displacing the struggling Tories, Reform UK, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I come from, in the region. It suggests that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, different language. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of more equal results is much harder. Our nation’s persistently low life chances remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in occupations with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. Yet where is the organization that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equal access so desperately.