As the original author championed social mobility as the essential to Conservative success – but the former Prime Minister didn’t do it. Now look at us.

As the beleaguered Tories convenes in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has much to ponder regarding its next steps. Doubt remains if a road forward exists at all. We are in tough times for a governing group that now has little, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.

An Alternate Reality

The situation might have been so different if concrete steps had been made on an policy focus that is important for people throughout the UK: Social mobility. Yet Boris Johnson’s government lacked the first clue on how to convert the popular slogan on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it discussed what the concept truly represented.

I found it bizarre, because I had previously explained to Johnson what levelling up signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about social mobility. This became our departmental mantra, and its meaning is clear: levelling up is the means by which we achieve equal access – without removing opportunity away from those who already have it, but rather by providing options to those that lack them.

Essential Principle

Another crucial education department term we used, “ability is distributed uniformly around the UK, yet chances are not”, served as a purposeful phrase, representing the two parts of a social mobility strategy. To begin with, talent spread evenly but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by employers or our economic system. Therefore, education and business were key to achieving better life chances. This represented an mission about the social fabric of our country – supporting human talent and providing access to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

How did the social mobility agenda become under the Tory administration? Regional development money administered out of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Decorative floral displays and reconfigured roundabouts and roads. An official policy document was released nearly three years after the Prime Minister took office, which saw existing policy approaches relabelled under the new levelling up banner.

As a result, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the improvement that it may have generated – in capital, enterprise, economic policy, tax and in local regeneration. Additionally, in schooling, including a tertiary education that has become a scapegoat for leaders across parties – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of social mobility for young working-class people, personally, this country has had throughout modern times. Maybe the primary source of equal opportunity, working extensively.

The Importance of Aspiration

Ambition is essential for our country to thrive. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a realistic expectation that dedication and outcome are connected; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For all administrations, being able to foster a outlook of positivity about the tomorrow is crucial. Studies by the Institute for Policy Research at Bath University and others, newly available, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to enhancing learning results – led to youth in those neighborhoods being up to a significant margin more positive about their life ahead than those in equivalent locations without these initiatives in place. The data shows: just making an authentic start on pro-social mobility policy can swiftly and beneficially change how people feel about their future.

Missed Opportunities

Unaware of these findings, and in the midst of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in that period, the Tory administration terminated the programmes. Why would anyone in those regions vote for a organization that did that? The targeted programme is a clear case of what might have become a transformative Conservative government agenda on social mobility, but that possibility was totally misused. Methods such as this can generate optimism and ambition. In contrast, as the Conservatives found out, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the costliest mistake any political party can make. The electorate punished the leadership for its failure but, above all, for its broken promises on social mobility.

The Current Landscape

Now the baton on life chances and fair access has been taken up by a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. Labour has its own political rhetoric of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the failing Tories, the challenger, also has its own message – “economic renewal”. It’s a phrase to talk about new opportunities in areas like the one I was raised in, in South Yorkshire. It suggests that an industrial past can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

For the public, it must appear as a repetitive cycle. Same issue, new terminology. However, so far, no progress.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to escape the similar destiny, both these parties should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that social mobility rhetoric is simple terminology, but effective implementation of more equal results is much harder. The UK’s chronically poor equal opportunity remains the primary challenge for our country, with the next generation unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in employment with few results after the rent has been paid, and citizens throughout the UK without any real hope their next generation will be able to do advance in life than they have.

Elected officials can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. However, which party has the organization that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. Whichever party succeeds initially, prevails. Not only for themselves, but, more importantly, for a complete society that has urgently needs fair chances so desperately.