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Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales this past Thursday to declare the construction of a new nuclear power station. This is a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the prime minister did not devote much time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he used the time attempting to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he wants his government to be doing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. Conversely, he is unable to accomplish this due to the manner he – and, to an extent, the nation as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister is unable to change the culture of politics on his own, but he can take action about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the government's core much more effectively than he currently does. If he did this, he might find that the country was in less dismay about his administration than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the problems in Number 10 are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the crucial role of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He made a former official his top aide, then substituted her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought Darren Jones in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of the Administration

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time conversing with parliamentarians and hearing the citizens. Premiers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who are often party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The biggest issues, though, are systemic. It would be good to think that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 report on reforming the government's central operations. His failure to address these matters last July or since suggests he did not. The often abject experience of the Labour administration suggests recommendations like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of top official and head of the civil service, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of PMs greatly exceeds the support available to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the casualty of past failures along with the author of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.