Levelling up: simple sound bite or social imperative? 

The Conservative Party has been accused of quietly stepping away from its vote-winning mantra “levelling up” amid accusations that the phrase was ill-defined, poorly understood and potentially meaningless.

Conservative MPs in key marginal seats say they have been told to “shun the use of the phrase because no one knows what it means”, The Times reported.

Those in constituencies viewed as being at risk have been advised by party staff to opt for alternatives including “stepping up”, “gauging up” or “enhancing communities” instead, one Tory told the paper.

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‘The panacea to almost all of Britain’s ills’

In his 2019 election manifesto, Boris Johnson introduced “levelling up” as a flagship policy. The former PM even declared it to be the “defining mission” of his administration.

At its introduction it was seen as “the panacea to almost all of Britain’s ills”, said The Times. “Levelling up would solve racial inequality, antisemitism, and boost disability rights, according to officials, as well as fulfilling its initial aim of fixing regional disparities.” At the 2019 General Election it “helped win the Tories their largest majority in 40 years”, wrote David Jeffery for UnHerd.

Deep into Johnson’s reign, however, only a comparatively modest £4bn had been dedicated to the project, and even that “seemed heavily skewed towards Tory and marginal constituencies”, said Tribune Magazine. To make matters worse, this “paltry fund was followed up with 12 further ‘missions’ – some containing specific aims to reduce rates of homicide, others more nebulous like increasing ‘pride in place’”.

It was the very looseness of its definition that made the phrase worthless, said former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith in an interview with Channel 4 News last year. The phrase quickly came “to be used for almost anything”.

“I’ve never been in favour of the phrase [levelling up],” he said, adding: “I’m not sure what it ever told anybody.”

For Johnson at least, it was intended to convey an intention to bring economic growth to deprived parts of the north of England. But even this wasn’t a new idea, said The Guardian’s Sarah Longlands in an opinion article late last year. After all, “didn’t the Cameron government have a plan for growth – a ‘northern powerhouse’?”

Its decline has been gradual rather than sudden. Even before the current Conservative directive to minimise the use of the phrase, Rishi Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss had also decided to “sideline the commitment”, according to the Yorkshire Post.

‘A mercy killing’

“It is a clear and important attempt to address the UK’s deep regional disparities, without relying on traditional fiscal redistribution,” said UnHerd’s Jeffery.

But according to Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling-up secretary, regional disparity has only increased since 2019.

“Since the last election regional inequality has got worse and nearly every levelling-up promise has been broken. Tory MPs can try to quietly bury it but what they can’t hide is their utter failure to deliver on their promises.”

James Frayne, a founding partner at Public First, a consultancy that has carried out polling for No. 10, said that the death of the phrase is a blessing.

“Banning the term levelling up is a mercy killing. It’s hard to think of a more stupid phrase,” he told The Times. “The weird thing is, the Conservatives have always known voters hated it. In many dozens of focus groups over the last three years, voters said they loved the concept but hated the language – but the more voters said they hated it, the more the government used it.”

According to Nandy there is a better option than any of the Tories’ proposed alternatives: “forget ‘stepping up’ or ‘gauging up’ – ‘screwing up’ would be more accurate.”