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As the struggling Tories gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its future direction. It’s not even clear if a clear direction remains open. These are tough times for a governing group that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an priority that resonates with people throughout the UK: Equal opportunity. Yet the former leadership hadn’t got the basic understanding on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the general election, it discussed what the term truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what levelling up signified when we first spoke about it during his leadership campaign. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It served as our departmental mantra, and its definition is clear: levelling up is the approach by which we attain equal access – not by taking chances away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding chances to those that are without.

The Core Concept

An additional vital ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly across our country, however access isn’t”, served as a intentional wording, representing the two parts of a fairness agenda. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our learning institutions. Second, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, schools and companies were key to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an priority about the community framework of our country – supporting individual capabilities and connecting them to chances.

What Levelling Up Became

What did levelling up evolve into under the Tory administration? Regional development money managed by the the relevant ministry. Street beautification and rearranged intersections. A white paper was launched nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in capital, business, fiscal strategy, taxation and in community development. Moreover, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for politicians of all stripes – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the primary source of social mobility, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Hope is essential for our country to succeed. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are connected; that if people aspire, they can attain. For all administrations, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the future is critical. Analysis by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in autumn 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those areas vote for a political group that took that action? This specific initiative is a single instance of what had the potential to be a transformative Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the ruling party discovered, reneging on commitments of fair chances is the most expensive error any leadership can make. Voters punished the government for its ineffectiveness but, primarily, for its unfulfilled commitments on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Now the baton on life chances and equal chances has been transferred to a Labour government. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The new government has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The political group that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own language – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about additional chances in regions like the one I grew up in, in South Yorkshire. It promises that an historical manufacturing base can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must seem like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, each group should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is one thing, but effective implementation of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Britain’s persistently low life chances remains the central problem for our country, with the next generation unable to get a good job beginning, those laboring in employment with few results after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any real hope their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention improved access however much they like. Yet where is the party that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has never needed fair chances so desperately.