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As the beleaguered Tories meets in its conference city for its annual party conference, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a road forward exists at all. We are in challenging circumstances for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

The situation might have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an priority that matters to people nationwide: Social mobility. Yet Boris Johnson’s government did not possess the first clue on how to convert the trendy talk on levelling up into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept even meant.

I was perplexed, because I had previously explained to Johnson what social mobility signified when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a term I developed and used at the education ministry to talk about life chances. It was our guiding principle, and its definition is unambiguous: social mobility is the method by which we attain equality of opportunity – without removing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by extending opportunities to those that lack them.

The Core Concept

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly around the UK, yet chances are not”, represented another a intentional wording, reflecting the two halves of a fairness agenda. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not developed consistently through our learning institutions. Furthermore, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economy. Therefore, schools and companies were key to achieving stronger social mobility. This constituted an agenda about the societal structure of our country – investing in people’s potential and connecting them to prospects.

The Actual Outcome

What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Local investment schemes overseen from the DLUHC. Street beautification and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. A government strategy was released a significant period after the leadership change, which saw current strategies rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.

Consequently, a wider fairness strategy went unpursued, as well as all the change that it may have generated – in funding, business, economic policy, taxation and in local regeneration. Additionally, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a target for leaders across parties – even though it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for youth from modest backgrounds, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Possibly the only engine of fair chances, operating at scale.

The Role of Ambition

Ambition is crucial for our country to prosper. To foster ambition, there needs to be a credible sense that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people dream big, they can succeed. For any government, being able to create a outlook of positivity about the years ahead is important. Research by the research body at Bath University and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I introduced as education secretary – place-based approaches to improving education outcomes – led to students in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more hopeful about their future than those in similar areas without these schemes in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can quickly and positively change how people feel about their prospects.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its successor selection process, in that period, the ruling party terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a organization that took that action? This specific initiative is a single instance of what might have become a revolutionary Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was hopelessly squandered. Methods such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. Conversely, as the ruling party discovered, breaking the promise of fair chances is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The public held accountable the leadership for its incompetence but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Present Circumstances

At present the mandate on life chances and equal chances has been taken up by a new administration. The levelling up rhetoric has been abandoned. The current administration has its own policy language of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The party that is gradually replacing the struggling incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. This expression to talk about new opportunities in communities like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an revitalized economy.

To the electorate, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Same issue, alternative phrasing. Yet, currently, little improvement.

The Way Forward

If Labour and Reform UK want to escape the same fate, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that equal opportunity talk is simple terminology, but effective implementation of improved opportunities is significantly more difficult. Our nation’s chronically poor life chances remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in occupations with minimal progress after the living expenses are met, and citizens throughout the UK without any actual expectation their offspring will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Politicians can discuss fairer opportunities however much they like. Yet where is the political group that has the comprehensive policy agenda on social mobility? I observe no such party. The first to achieve this, wins. Not just for their party, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has desperately requires fair chances so desperately.