🔗 Share this article

While the beleaguered Conservative party meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a viable path remains open. These are challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

What Could Have Been

The situation might have been markedly improved if concrete steps had been made on an agenda that resonates with people nationwide: Equal opportunity. However the former leadership did not possess the slightest idea on how to transform the popular slogan on social mobility into concrete action. During the initial period after the 2019 election, it argued over what the concept even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to the Prime Minister what levelling up entailed when we initially discussed about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was language I created and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. This became our core mission, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by providing chances to those that are without.

The Core Concept

The other key ministry expression we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, yet chances are not”, represented another a intentional wording, representing the two parts of a equal opportunity plan. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, opportunities not spread evenly by businesses or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This represented an agenda about the community framework of our country – supporting individual capabilities and providing access to chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Local investment schemes administered out of the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A white paper was released nearly three years after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in funding, enterprise, fiscal strategy, tax and in place-making. Additionally, in learning, including a university system that has become a target for elected officials – even though it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for individuals from less privileged homes, personally, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of social mobility, working extensively.

The Role of Ambition

Aspiration is essential for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that effort and reward are related; that if people aspire, they can succeed. For any government, being able to foster a sense of optimism about the years ahead is important. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the academic establishment and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I established during my tenure – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those areas being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these programmes in place. The data shows: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their destiny.

Lost Potential

Ignoring this evidence, and in the midst of its new leader election, in that period, the Tory administration closed opportunity areas down. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a political group that made that decision? This specific initiative is one example of what had the potential to be a transformative Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. On the other hand, as the Tories found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the costliest mistake any political party can make. Voters penalized the administration for its failure but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

Present Circumstances

Currently the responsibility on life chances and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a new administration. The old slogan has been abandoned. The current administration has its own political rhetoric of “eliminating hurdles to advancement”. The party that is steadily supplanting the failing Conservative party, Reform UK, also has its own terminology – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I come from, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an former economic strength can revive into an industrial future.

For voters, it must feel like a Groundhog Day-style loop. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

What Must Change

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, the respective organizations should take lessons from the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that fair chance language is one thing, but successful delivery of more equal results is much harder. Britain’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in occupations with few results after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any genuine belief their offspring will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about equal chances repeatedly. However, which party has the organization that has the thorough strategy on life chances? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has never needed fair chances so badly.