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While the struggling Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path remains open. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet the former leadership lacked the basic understanding on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its definition is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we attain equal access – not through reducing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

Another crucial ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, but opportunity is not”, served as a deliberate expression, reflecting the dual components of a social mobility strategy. First, ability distributed uniformly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Furthermore, opportunities not spread evenly by the private sector or our economy. As a result, schools and companies were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an mission about the community framework of our country – supporting people’s potential and providing access to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? Local investment schemes administered out of the the relevant ministry. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was launched nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, economic policy, taxation and in community development. Additionally, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the only engine of social mobility, functioning widely.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is vital for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the years ahead is crucial. Research by the academic institution at the university and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their life ahead than those in comparable communities without these programmes in place. The research confirms: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their future.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the middle of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those regions vote for a political group that took that action? This specific initiative is a clear case of what could have been a game-changing 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, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any political party can make. Voters penalized the administration for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its failed pledges on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

At present the responsibility on social mobility and equal chances has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. The current administration has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is gradually replacing the failing incumbents, Reform UK, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in communities like the one I grew up in, in the region. It claims that an industrial past can reincarnate into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Same issue, different language. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to escape the identical outcome, the respective organizations should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is far more challenging. Britain’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in full-time jobs with little to show after the living expenses are met, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can mention improved access however much they like. Yet where is the organization that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I see none. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, crucially, for a whole country that has never needed equal access so badly.