As the original author championed equal opportunity as the essential to Conservative electoral victory – but Boris Johnson didn’t do it. See the current state.

While the struggling Tories gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction exists at all. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been so different if concrete steps had been made on an priority that is important for people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. However the previous administration hadn’t got the first clue on how to convert the trendy talk on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the general election, it discussed what the phrase actually signified.

I was perplexed, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what social mobility entailed when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by providing options to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital education department term we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, served as a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our market. Thus, schools and companies were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an priority about the social fabric of our country – fostering individual capabilities and linking them with prospects.

The Reality of Implementation

How did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. An official policy document was published almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Consequently, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in capital, commerce, economic policy, revenue and in local regeneration. Moreover, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for young working-class people, like me, this country has had in recent decades. Possibly the only engine of fair chances, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is essential for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are linked; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For any government, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is crucial. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more positive about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people feel about their future.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a political group that took that action? The targeted programme is a clear case of what had the potential to be a game-changing administration strategy on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. On the other hand, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate held accountable the government for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Now the responsibility on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a opposition party. The old slogan has been cast off. The new government has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the failing incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. The terminology to talk about new opportunities in regions like the one I was raised in, in the region. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the identical outcome, each group should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on social mobility; that fair chance language is easy to say, but actual achievement of more equal results is much harder. Our nation’s endemically weak 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 occupations with little to show after the housing costs are covered, and people across the country without any actual expectation their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can discuss improved access repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the complete plan on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for their party, but, crucially, for a entire nation that has urgently needs fair chances so urgently.