🔗 Share this article

As the existentially challenged Tories convenes in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. These are tough times for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

Things could have turned out so different if real advances had been made on an priority that matters to people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. But Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the first clue on how to transform the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the phrase truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It was our core mission, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the method by which we achieve equality of opportunity – not by taking chances away from those who already have it, but rather by providing opportunities to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

The other key ministry expression we used, “talent is spread evenly throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, served as a deliberate expression, embodying the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our education system. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by employers or our market. As a result, education and business were crucial to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the social fabric of our country – fostering individual capabilities and linking them with chances.

The Reality of Implementation

How did levelling up become under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money overseen from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Street beautification and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in funding, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in community development. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the sole mechanism of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Hope is vital for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are connected; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Analysis by the research body at Bath University and others, published last month, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those communities being up to nearly one-fifth more hopeful about their prospects than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can rapidly and effectively change how people view their destiny.

Squandered Chances

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its successor selection process, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a political group that made that decision? This specific initiative is a clear case of what might have become a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories learned, breaking the promise of social mobility is the biggest blunder any leadership can make. The electorate held accountable the administration for its failure but, primarily, for its broken promises on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Currently the mandate on social mobility and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a opposition party. The old slogan has been cast off. The new government has its own public messaging of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is increasingly displacing the hapless Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about fresh prospects in areas like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an revitalized economy.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.

What Must Change

If Labour and Reform UK want to avoid the same fate, each group should understand the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s endemically weak social mobility remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those working hard in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about fairer opportunities repeatedly. But where is the party that has the thorough strategy on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has urgently needs fair chances so desperately.