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While the struggling Tories convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its path forward. Doubt remains if a clear direction is available. We are in difficult days for a political party that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

Things could have turned out so different if real advances had been made on an policy focus that is important for people across the country: Equal opportunity. However the previous administration did not possess the basic understanding on how to convert the trendy talk on social mobility into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the 2019 election, it argued over what the term actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I had clearly defined for the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we originally talked about it during his leadership campaign. This terminology was language I created and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. It served as our departmental mantra, and its purpose is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we attain equality of opportunity – not through reducing prospects away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that don’t.

Fundamental Idea

The other key ministry expression we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, again was a intentional wording, embodying the two parts of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Furthermore, access not provided uniformly by employers or our market. Thus, schools and companies were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an mission about the community framework of our country – supporting people’s potential and connecting them to chances.

The Reality of Implementation

What did the social mobility agenda evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money managed by the DLUHC. Hanging baskets and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A white paper was launched a significant period after Johnson became leader, which saw current strategies rebadged under the recently branded agenda.

Therefore, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, fiscal strategy, revenue and in place-making. Additionally, in education, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the strongest driver of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Possibly the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, working extensively.

Why Hope Matters

Ambition is vital for our country to thrive. To foster ambition, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people aim high, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to create a feeling of hope about the years ahead is critical. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at the university and others, published last month, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to students in those communities being up to a significant margin more optimistic about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on fair opportunity strategies can rapidly and effectively change how people view their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in autumn 2022, the Conservative government closed opportunity areas down. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a organization that made that decision? The opportunity areas policy is a single instance of what might have become a game-changing Conservative government agenda on levelling up, but that possibility was hopelessly squandered. Approaches such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, breaking the promise of equal opportunity is the most expensive error any political party can make. The electorate punished the leadership for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its unfulfilled commitments on social mobility.

Today’s Political Reality

At present the baton on equal opportunity and fair access has been transferred to a opposition party. The old slogan has been discarded. Labour has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing incumbents, the alternative party, also has its own terminology – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I come from, in my hometown. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an industrial future.

To the electorate, it must feel like a repetitive cycle. Similar challenge, different language. Yet, currently, little improvement.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, both these parties should understand the Conservatives’ failure on social mobility; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but actual achievement of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s endemically weak social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those putting in effort in employment with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their children will be able to do improve in life than they have.

Leaders can talk about equal chances however much they like. But where is the party that has the complete plan on equal opportunity? None appear to exist. Whoever gets there first, wins. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has never needed fair chances so desperately.