🔗 Share this article I preached social mobility as the critical to Conservative success – but the former Prime Minister failed to deliver. Now look at us. While the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. Doubt remains if a road forward is available. These are difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the public. An Alternate Reality Things could have turned out markedly improved if real advances had been made on an agenda that matters to people throughout the UK: Levelling up. But the previous administration lacked the basic understanding on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into actual implementation. During the initial period after the general election, it debated what the concept truly represented. It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for Johnson what levelling up signified when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its definition is clear: social mobility is the approach by which we realize equality of opportunity – not by taking prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that are without. Fundamental Idea The other key ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, however access isn’t”, represented another a intentional wording, representing the two halves of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our learning institutions. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economy. Therefore, learning and employment were crucial to achieving better life chances. This constituted an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in human talent and connecting them to prospects. The Reality of Implementation What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the Tory administration? A towns fund administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and redeveloped traffic systems. A white paper was launched nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan. Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in investment, business, fiscal strategy, revenue and in community development. And, of course, in education, including a higher education sector that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of social mobility for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the sole mechanism of social mobility, functioning widely. Why Hope Matters Ambition is essential for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that hard work and results are related; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For all administrations, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is critical. Analysis by the research body at the university and others, published last month, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to boosting academic achievement – 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 research confirms: just making an sincere effort on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their future. Missed Opportunities Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in autumn 2022, the ruling party closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those communities vote for a organization that made that decision? The targeted programme is a clear case of what might have become a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that chance was completely wasted. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. Conversely, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of fair chances is the biggest blunder any political party can make. Voters penalized the leadership for its ineffectiveness but, perhaps most of all, for its failed pledges on social mobility. Today’s Political Reality Currently the responsibility on equal opportunity and equal chances has been taken up by a new administration. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is steadily supplanting the hapless incumbents, the challenger, also has its own language – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It claims that an former economic strength can reincarnate into an industrial future. To the electorate, it must appear as a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, alternative phrasing. However, so far, no progress. Lessons for the Future Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the similar destiny, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is one thing, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Britain’s persistently low life chances remains the central problem for our country, with youth unable to get a proper professional launch, those laboring 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. Politicians can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. But where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on equal opportunity? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, prevails. Not just for themselves, but, significantly, for a complete society that has never needed equal access so desperately.