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As the existentially challenged Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a clear direction is available. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that resonates with people across the country: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership lacked the basic understanding on how to turn the trendy talk on levelling up into actual implementation. For the two years after the general election, it debated what the concept actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. This became our guiding principle, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we achieve equal access – not by taking opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by providing chances to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, however access isn’t”, represented another a deliberate expression, representing the two parts of a fairness agenda. Initially, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economic system. As a result, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This represented an mission about the social fabric of our country – investing in individual capabilities and providing access to opportunities.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under the previous government? Regional development money managed by the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A white paper 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 broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in investment, business, fiscal strategy, taxation and in community development. And, of course, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – even though it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of social mobility, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is crucial for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people aspire, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the future is critical. Research by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those areas being up to a significant margin more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these programmes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people view their future.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those communities vote for a political group that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what could have been a transformative Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the Conservatives learned, failing to deliver of fair chances is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. The public penalized the government for its failure but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Now the baton on life chances and equal chances has been taken up by a new administration. The previous terminology has been discarded. The current administration has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is increasingly displacing the struggling Tories, the challenger, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the identical outcome, each group should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but successful delivery of more equal results is much harder. The UK’s endemically weak life chances remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in employment with little to show after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss improved access as much as they want. Yet where is the organization that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not just for their organization, but, significantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires equal access so badly.