While the existentially challenged Conservative party gathers in its conference city for its yearly gathering, it has plenty to consider regarding its next steps. It’s not even clear if a road forward is available. We are in challenging circumstances for a political party that now has almost nothing, if anything, fresh or distinctive to say to voters.
The Missed Opportunity
It could have been markedly improved if real advances had been made on an agenda that resonates with people throughout the UK: Levelling up. But the previous administration did not possess the slightest idea on how to transform the popular slogan on social mobility into concrete action. For the two years after the 2019 election, it argued over what the phrase even meant.
I found it bizarre, because I’d already told the Prime Minister what social mobility meant when we first spoke about it during the contest for party leader. The phrase was a term I developed and used at the DfE to talk about social mobility. It served as our core mission, and its definition is clear: social mobility is the approach by which we realize equality of opportunity – not through reducing prospects away from those who already have it, but rather by expanding opportunities to those that don’t.
Essential Principle
An additional vital DfE phrase we used, “talent is spread evenly across our country, however access isn’t”, again was a purposeful phrase, representing the two halves of a fairness agenda. To begin with, potential shared equally but not nurtured uniformly through our education system. Second, access not provided uniformly by the private sector or our market. Thus, learning and employment were essential to achieving stronger social mobility. This represented an priority about the community framework of our country – supporting human talent and linking them with prospects.
The Actual Outcome
What did the social mobility agenda become under the previous government? Local investment schemes managed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Hanging baskets and rearranged intersections. A white paper was released almost thirty-six months after the Prime Minister took office, which saw ongoing initiatives rebadged under the fresh social mobility slogan.
Therefore, a broader social mobility agenda went undeveloped, as well as all the reform that it could have inspired – in funding, business, fiscal strategy, revenue and in community development. Moreover, in learning, including a tertiary education that has become a punchbag for elected officials – despite the fact that it remains the primary vehicle of life improvement for individuals from less privileged homes, like me, this country has had over the past 30 years. Perhaps the primary source of fair chances, working extensively.
The Importance of Aspiration
Ambition is crucial for our country to thrive. For hope to exist, there needs to be a realistic expectation that hard work and results are related; that if people aim high, they can succeed. For any government, being able to instil a feeling of hope about the tomorrow is critical. Studies by the research body at the university and others, recently released, showed that the DfE’s 12 “opportunity areas” I launched while in office – locally targeted strategies to boosting academic achievement – led to young people in those areas being up to 18 percentage points more hopeful about their life ahead than those in similar areas without these initiatives in place. The evidence is clear: just making an sincere effort on equal chance initiatives can swiftly and beneficially change how people perceive their future.
Squandered Chances
Oblivious to this, and in the throes of its post-Johnson leadership contest, in September 2022, the ruling party terminated the programmes. What reason would someone in those areas vote for a party that did that? The targeted programme is a clear case of what had the potential to be a revolutionary Tory policy platform on social mobility, but that chance was totally misused. Strategies such as this can inspire hope and aspiration. In contrast, as the Tories discovered, reneging on commitments of social mobility is the biggest blunder any government can make. The electorate penalized the leadership for its failure but, primarily, for its failed pledges on social mobility.
Today’s Political Reality
Now the mandate on social mobility and fair access has been transferred to a Labour government. The previous terminology has been discarded. The current administration has its own public messaging of “breaking down the barriers to opportunity”. The organization that is increasingly displacing the failing incumbents, the challenger, also has its own message – “industrial revival”. It’s a phrase to talk about additional chances in areas like the one I was raised in, in the region. It suggests that an historical manufacturing base can revive into an modern manufacturing sector.
For voters, it must seem like a déjà vu experience. Identical problem, different language. But – as yet – no results.
What Must Change
Whether the government and opposition want to avoid the same fate, each group should take lessons from the Tories’ mistakes on levelling up; that social mobility rhetoric is easy to say, but actual achievement of more equal results is much harder. Britain’s chronically poor social mobility remains the key issue for our country, with young people unable to get a decent career start, those laboring in employment with few results after the living expenses are met, and people across the country without any real hope their children will be able to do advance in life than they have.
Leaders can mention fairer opportunities however much they like. But where is the organization that has the complete plan on social mobility? None appear to exist. The first to achieve this, wins. Not only for their party, but, more importantly, for a whole country that has never needed equal access so badly.
