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As the struggling Tories gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path exists at all. These are tough times for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been vastly better if real advances had been made on an priority that matters to people nationwide: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the first clue on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it discussed what the term even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up entailed when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its definition is clear: social mobility is the method by which we achieve equal access – without removing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by extending chances to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, served as a deliberate expression, embodying the dual components of a fairness agenda. Initially, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economy. As a result, education and business were crucial to achieving better life chances. This constituted an agenda about the social fabric of our country – supporting individual capabilities and linking them with opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was published a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it might have driven – in investment, commerce, fiscal strategy, taxation and in local regeneration. And, of course, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for elected officials – even though it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the primary source of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is crucial for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are linked; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to create a sense of optimism about the years ahead is critical. Research by the academic institution at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to improving education outcomes – led to students in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the middle of its successor selection process, in that period, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a party that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what might have become a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any government can make. Voters penalized the administration for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Now the baton on life chances and fair access has passed to a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the struggling Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I was raised in, in the region. It promises that an industrial past can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the same fate, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is much harder. Our nation’s chronically poor social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in employment with few results after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss fairer opportunities repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the thorough strategy on life chances? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a whole country that has never needed equal access so desperately.