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While the existentially challenged Tories meets in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a clear direction is available. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been vastly better if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that resonates with people throughout the UK: Social mobility. However the former leadership did not possess the basic understanding on how to turn the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. During the initial period after the general election, it discussed what the phrase actually signified.

I found it bizarre, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It served as our guiding principle, and its meaning is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – not by taking prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by providing options to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, yet chances are not”, again was a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a social mobility strategy. First, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our economic system. As a result, schools and companies were crucial to achieving better life chances. This was an mission about the societal structure of our country – supporting individual capabilities and linking them with prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

What did levelling up turn into under the previous government? Regional development money managed by the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

Consequently, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in funding, commerce, financial planning, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in schooling, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for elected officials – even though it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for young working-class people, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of fair chances, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Aspiration is essential for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are connected; that if people aspire, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is crucial. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to students in those communities being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their future than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people perceive their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its new leader election, in September 2022, the ruling party ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a party that made that decision? The targeted programme is a clear case of what might have become a revolutionary Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, breaking the promise of fair chances is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. The electorate punished the leadership for its incompetence but, above all, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Now the mandate on social mobility and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been cast off. The current administration has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing Conservative party, the alternative party, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I was raised in, in the region. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.

For voters, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. The UK’s endemically weak social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in occupations with few results after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any real hope their next generation will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can talk about improved access as much as they want. Yet where is the political group that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, significantly, for a whole country that has never needed equality of opportunity so urgently.