As the original author advocated for levelling up as the key to Conservative success – but the former Prime Minister neglected the agenda. Now look at us.

While the existentially challenged Tories gathers in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a clear direction remains open. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been markedly improved if tangible progress had been made on an policy focus that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. But Boris Johnson’s government lacked the basic understanding on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into actual implementation. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it argued over what the term truly represented.

I was perplexed, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what levelling up meant when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. This terminology was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: levelling up is the means by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing chances away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding options to those that lack them.

Fundamental Idea

The other key DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, but opportunity is not”, served as a intentional wording, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our economic system. Therefore, learning and employment were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an mission about the community framework of our country – fostering human talent and connecting them to prospects.

What Levelling Up Became

How did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? A towns fund administered out of the the relevant ministry. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was launched nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in funding, enterprise, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. And, of course, in schooling, including a higher education sector that has become a target for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the only engine of equal opportunity, operating at scale.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is vital for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a believable feeling that effort and reward are linked; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For any government, being able to instil a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is critical. Analysis by the research body at the university and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to young people in those communities being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their prospects than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on fair opportunity strategies can quickly and positively change how people view their future.

Lost Potential

Oblivious to this, and in the middle of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why should any person in those regions vote for a party that did that? The opportunity areas policy is one example of what might have become a transformative Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. On the other hand, as the ruling party found out, breaking the promise of social mobility is the most expensive error any leadership can make. Voters penalized the government for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on levelling up.

The Current Landscape

Now the responsibility on life chances and equality of opportunity has been transferred to a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been cast off. Labour has its own policy language of “removing obstacles to success”. The party that is gradually replacing the struggling incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. This expression to talk about fresh prospects in regions like the one I grew up in, in my hometown. It promises that an industrial past can reincarnate into an industrial future.

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

Lessons for the Future

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the similar destiny, the respective organizations should learn from the Conservatives’ failure on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but successful delivery of more equal results is significantly more difficult. The UK’s persistently low life chances remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a proper professional launch, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any actual expectation their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. However, which party has the party that has the complete plan on life chances? I observe no such party. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs fair chances so badly.