🔗 Share this article

As the beleaguered Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a clear direction remains open. These are difficult days for a governing group that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an priority that resonates with people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the slightest idea on how to turn the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the general election, it debated what the term even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was language I created and used at the DfE to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its definition is straightforward: social mobility is the approach by which we achieve fair chances – not through reducing prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by providing opportunities to those that don’t.

Essential Principle

An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, but opportunity is not”, served as a deliberate expression, reflecting the two parts of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not developed consistently through our education system. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our market. Therefore, education and business were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an priority about the community framework of our country – investing in individual capabilities and providing access to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was released almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw existing policy approaches rebadged under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went unpursued, as well as all the reform that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, financial planning, taxation and in place-making. And, of course, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a target for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the only engine of social mobility, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is crucial for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Studies by the academic institution at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on fair opportunity strategies can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their future.

Lost Potential

Unaware of these findings, and in the throes of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why should any person in those areas vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a single instance of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Conservatives found out, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any leadership can make. The electorate held accountable the administration for its failure but, above all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the mandate on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been cast off. The new government 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 terminology – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I grew up in, in the region. It claims that an industrial past can revive into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, new terminology. But – as yet – no results.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to prevent the identical outcome, each group should understand the previous government’s errors on levelling up; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. Britain’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in employment with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can mention improved access as much as they want. But where is the organization that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has never needed fair chances so badly.