🔗 Share this article As the original author championed equal opportunity as the key to Tory electoral victory – but Boris Johnson didn’t do it. Now look at us. While the beleaguered Tories gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. There is uncertainty if a clear direction remains open. These are difficult days for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to the electorate. An Alternate Reality It could have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an priority that resonates with people throughout the UK: Levelling up. But Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the slightest idea on how to transform his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. Over twenty-four months after the general election, it discussed what the concept truly represented. It seemed strange to me, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the Department for Education to talk about life chances. This became our core mission, and its purpose is clear: social mobility is the means by which we attain fair chances – not through reducing opportunity away from those who are already advantaged, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that lack them. Essential Principle An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared around the UK, however access isn’t”, again was a purposeful phrase, reflecting the dual components of a social mobility strategy. Initially, potential shared equally but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, access not provided uniformly by employers or our economic system. As a result, learning and employment were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This was an agenda about the social fabric of our country – fostering human talent and providing access to chances. The Reality of Implementation What did levelling up evolve into under the previous government? Regional development money administered out of the DLUHC. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was launched a significant period after the leadership change, which saw ongoing initiatives relabelled under the fresh social mobility slogan. As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went ignored, as well as all the improvement that it could have inspired – in capital, enterprise, financial planning, taxation and in community development. Moreover, in learning, including a university system that has become a punchbag for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the only engine of social mobility, operating at scale. The Importance of Aspiration Hope is vital for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are connected; that if people dream big, they can achieve. For political leadership, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the future is critical. Analysis by the research body at the academic establishment and others, recently released, showed that the education department’s targeted regions I established during my tenure – community-focused methods to improving education outcomes – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to 18 percentage points more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The research confirms: just making an genuine beginning on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people view their prospects. Missed Opportunities Ignoring this evidence, and in the throes of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Tory administration ended the initiatives. Why should any person in those areas vote for a political group that did that? The targeted programme is one example of what might have become a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that opportunity was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. Conversely, as the Conservatives learned, breaking the promise of social mobility is the biggest blunder any political party can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its incompetence but, primarily, for its failed pledges on levelling up. Today’s Political Reality At present the baton on equal opportunity and equality of opportunity has passed to a new administration. The previous terminology has been cast off. Labour has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is increasingly displacing the failing Conservative party, the challenger, also has its own message – “reindustrialisation”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in communities like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It claims that an industrial past can reincarnate into an modern manufacturing sector. For voters, it must feel like a déjà vu experience. Same issue, different language. However, so far, no progress. What Must Change Whether the government and opposition want to escape the identical outcome, each group should understand the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that fair chance language is simple terminology, but actual achievement of fairer outcomes is far more challenging. Our nation’s chronically poor social mobility remains the primary challenge for our country, with youth unable to get a good job beginning, those putting in effort in occupations with minimal progress after the housing costs are covered, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do improve in life than they have. Politicians can mention improved access as much as they want. Yet where is the organization that has the thorough strategy on life chances? I see none. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not just for their organization, but, more importantly, for a entire nation that has desperately requires equality of opportunity so urgently.