I advocated for social mobility as the critical to Tory electoral victory – but Boris Johnson didn’t do it. Now look at us.

While the beleaguered Conservative party meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. It’s not even clear if a road forward exists at all. These are challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has almost nothing, 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 is important for people across the country: Levelling up. Yet the former leadership hadn’t got the first clue on how to turn the trendy talk on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it debated what the phrase actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about equal opportunity. This became our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the approach by which we attain equal access – not through reducing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by extending options to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a social mobility strategy. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our economy. Therefore, learning and employment were essential to achieving better life chances. This was an mission about the societal structure of our country – supporting human talent and connecting them to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A government strategy was published a significant period after the Prime Minister took office, which saw current strategies rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the reform that it might have driven – in funding, commerce, financial planning, tax and in local regeneration. Moreover, in education, including a university system that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – although it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for youth from modest backgrounds, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Possibly the sole mechanism of fair chances, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is crucial for our country to succeed. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to create a feeling of hope about the future is critical. Analysis by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to students in those areas being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their future than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people perceive their future.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those regions vote for a party that took that action? This specific initiative is one example of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. Voters punished the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on social mobility and equal chances has been transferred to a opposition party. The old slogan has been abandoned. Labour has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It claims that an former economic strength can revive into an industrial future.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to prevent the identical outcome, the respective organizations should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but actual achievement of more equal results is much harder. Britain’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any genuine belief their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can discuss equal chances repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has desperately requires fair chances so badly.