Something is missing from the United Kingdom's social mobility debate But two MPs have put their names to a new project that might change that. Almost everyone in British politics is for equality of opportunity, at least in theory. Yet in reality, equality of opportunity in the United Kingdom remains patchy, both geographically and in terms of occupation. The divide isn’t really north-south: when in 2017 the Social Mobility Commission ranked England’s 324 local authority areas by the amount of access to qualifications and good jobs, it found that the worst-performing 25 areas were dotted across the United Kingdom – everywhere, that is, except London. Just one London borough (Barking and Dagenham, at 114) is outside the top 100, and just two (Enfield and Hillingdon, at 53 and 71 respectively) are outside the top 50. Your access to opportunity is markedly worse in Oldham (252) than Trafford (24), despite the two being only half an hour’s drive from one another.