I advocated for social mobility as the key to Conservative electoral victory – but the former Prime Minister didn’t do it. Now look at us.

As the existentially challenged Tories gathers in Manchester for its yearly gathering, it has a lot to reflect on regarding its future direction. There is uncertainty if a viable path remains open. We are in difficult days for a governing group that now has very little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.

The Missed Opportunity

It could have been vastly better if concrete steps had been made on an priority that is important for people across the country: Social mobility. However Boris Johnson’s government lacked the slightest idea on how to convert his zeitgeisty rhetoric on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the general election, it discussed what the phrase actually signified.

It seemed strange to me, because I’d already told Johnson what social mobility signified when we originally talked about it during the contest for party leader. The expression was a concept I originated and used at the education ministry to talk about equal opportunity. It was our core mission, and its meaning is straightforward: social mobility is the means by which we attain equality of opportunity – without removing opportunity away from those who possess it, but rather by expanding options to those that are without.

Fundamental Idea

Another crucial DfE phrase we used, “potential is equally shared throughout the nation, however access isn’t”, again was a deliberate expression, embodying the two halves of a social mobility strategy. Initially, ability distributed uniformly but not cultivated evenly through our schools and colleges. Additionally, chances not distributed fairly by the private sector or our economy. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving improved equality of opportunity. This constituted an agenda about the social fabric of our country – supporting people’s potential and connecting them to opportunities.

The Reality of Implementation

How did the social mobility agenda turn into under Johnson’s Conservatives? Regional development money overseen from the DLUHC. Decorative floral displays and redeveloped traffic systems. An official policy document was launched almost thirty-six months after Johnson became leader, which saw ongoing initiatives repackaged under the recently branded agenda.

As a result, a comprehensive equal opportunity plan went undeveloped, as well as all the change that it could have inspired – in funding, business, economic policy, revenue and in community development. Additionally, in schooling, including a university system that has become a target for leaders across parties – even though it remains the most powerful engine of upward movement for individuals from less privileged homes, including myself, this country has had over the past 30 years. Maybe the sole mechanism of equal opportunity, functioning widely.

The Importance of Aspiration

Hope is essential for our country to prosper. For people to have aspiration, there needs to be a believable feeling that hard work and results are linked; that if people dream big, they can attain. For political leadership, being able to foster a feeling of hope about the years ahead is important. Analysis by the academic institution at the university and others, newly available, showed that the ministry’s focus zones I introduced as education secretary – community-focused methods to enhancing learning results – led to students in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more optimistic about their prospects than those in comparable communities without these schemes in place. The evidence is clear: just making an genuine beginning on equal chance initiatives can quickly and positively change how people view their destiny.

Missed Opportunities

Oblivious to this, and in the midst of its new leader election, in September 2022, the Conservative government ended the initiatives. What reason would someone in those communities vote for a party that took that action? This specific initiative is one example of what could have been a game-changing Tory policy platform on levelling up, but that chance was totally misused. Methods such as this can create belief and drive. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, failing to deliver of equal opportunity is the biggest blunder any government can make. Voters punished the leadership for its failure but, perhaps most of all, for its broken promises on equal opportunity.

Today’s Political Reality

Currently the baton on life chances and equal chances has been transferred to a opposition party. The previous terminology has been abandoned. The current administration has its own public messaging of “removing obstacles to success”. The political group that is steadily supplanting the hapless Tories, the alternative party, also has its own language – “economic renewal”. The terminology to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I was raised in, in my hometown. It promises that an former economic strength can be reborn into an modern manufacturing sector.

To the electorate, it must appear as a déjà vu experience. Same issue, different language. But – as yet – no results.

Lessons for the Future

Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, each group should understand the previous government’s errors on social mobility; that fair chance language is one thing, 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 proper professional launch, those putting in effort in employment with little to show after the rent has been paid, and individuals nationwide without any actual expectation their children will be able to do any better in life than they have.

Leaders can mention fairer opportunities repeatedly. However, which party has the political group that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, succeeds. Not only for themselves, but, crucially, for a whole country that has urgently needs fair chances so badly.