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As the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a viable path remains open. We are in challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an priority that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet the former leadership did not possess the first clue on how to transform the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. During the initial period after the general election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a term I developed and used at the Department for Education to talk about equal opportunity. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we attain fair chances – without removing chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing chances to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, but opportunity is not”, again was a intentional wording, embodying the dual components of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economy. As a result, education and business were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an agenda about the community framework of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Regional development money administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was published a significant period after the leadership change, which saw current strategies repackaged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in capital, business, financial planning, revenue and in community development. And, of course, in education, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the sole mechanism of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is crucial for our country to prosper. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aspire, they can attain. For any government, being able to create a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more optimistic about their future than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its new leader election, in that period, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a organization that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what could have been a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that opportunity was completely wasted. Strategies such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Tories learned, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any political party can make. The electorate held accountable the administration for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a Labour government. The old slogan has been discarded. The new government has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is gradually replacing the failing Conservative party, the challenger, 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 my hometown. It promises that an former economic strength can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, different language. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the similar destiny, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation 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 real hope their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss equal chances as much as they want. Yet where is the party that has the thorough strategy on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not only for their organization, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so desperately.