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While the beleaguered Conservative party convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a road forward is available. These are tough times for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been so different if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that is important for people across the country: Equal opportunity. But the previous administration lacked the first clue on how to convert the trendy talk on social mobility into policy reality. During the initial period after the general election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up entailed when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. It served as our core mission, and its definition is straightforward: levelling up is the means by which we realize fair chances – not through reducing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly throughout the nation, but opportunity is not”, served as a purposeful phrase, reflecting the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our education system. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by employers or our market. As a result, schools and companies were essential to achieving better life chances. This constituted an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in people’s potential and linking them with chances.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up become under the previous government? Regional development money managed by the the relevant ministry. Decorative floral displays and rearranged intersections. A white paper was released nearly three years after the leadership change, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, tax and in place-making. Additionally, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – even though it remains the strongest driver of upward movement for young working-class people, including myself, this country has had in recent decades. Perhaps the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is essential for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For political leadership, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is critical. Analysis by the academic institution at the university and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those areas being up to nearly one-fifth more positive about their life ahead 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 feel about their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its new leader election, in that period, the ruling party ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those regions vote for a organization that did that? The opportunity areas policy is a clear case of what could have been a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Strategies such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any leadership can make. The electorate punished the administration for its failure but, primarily, for its failed pledges on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on life chances and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a opposition party. The levelling up rhetoric has been discarded. The current administration has its own policy language of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is gradually replacing the hapless Tories, Reform UK, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I come from, in my hometown. It promises that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Similar challenge, new terminology. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the identical outcome, the respective organizations should learn from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but actual achievement of more equal results is far more challenging. Our nation’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the central problem for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in full-time jobs with minimal progress after the rent has been paid, and people across the country without any genuine belief their next generation will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. But where is the party that has the comprehensive policy agenda on social mobility? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their party, but, significantly, for a entire nation that has never needed equality of opportunity so urgently.