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While the struggling Tories meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a road forward exists at all. These are difficult days for a political party that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to the public.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been so different if real advances had been made on an policy focus that is important for people nationwide: Levelling up. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the slightest idea on how to convert the trendy talk on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it debated what the concept even meant.

It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what social mobility entailed when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It served as our guiding principle, and its meaning is straightforward: social mobility is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – not by taking prospects away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding options to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, yet chances are not”, represented another a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our education system. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by businesses or our market. As a result, education and business were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an mission about the community framework of our country – supporting people’s potential and connecting them to opportunities.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under Johnson’s Conservatives? A towns fund administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was released almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, economic policy, taxation and in community development. And, of course, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a target for elected officials – even though it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had in recent decades. Possibly the only engine of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are linked; that if people aspire, they can attain. For any government, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the years ahead is crucial. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to young people in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their future than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their prospects.

Squandered Chances

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a organization that took that action? The targeted programme is one example of what might have become a revolutionary administration strategy on social mobility, but that possibility was totally misused. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the ruling party learned, reneging on commitments of equal opportunity is the costliest mistake any government can make. The electorate held accountable the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

At present the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has been taken up by a Labour government. The previous terminology has been discarded. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is steadily supplanting the failing incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an historical manufacturing base can reincarnate into an industrial future.

For voters, it must seem like a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

Should the current and alternative parties want to avoid the similar destiny, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is easy to say, but successful delivery of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. The UK’s persistently low equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those working hard in employment with little to show after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any real hope their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss fairer opportunities however much they like. However, which party has the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on life chances? I see none. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not only for their organization, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires fair chances so urgently.