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Sir Keir 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 PM did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he used the time attempting to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary's goals earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his premiership has evolved into overall. Firstly, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, important things. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this because of the manner he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the political culture on his own, but he is able to do something about his own role in it. The simple truth is that he could manage the centre of government much more effectively than he does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his administration than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the issues in Number 10 relate to individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern well from outside. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to up his game, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He dithered about giving the crucial role of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He appointed a former official his chief of staff, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited a Treasury figure 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.

Systemic Issues at the Core of the Administration

Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and hearing the citizens. Premiers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's spring 2024 study on overhauling the centre of government. His inability to address these matters last July or afterward implies he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like restructuring the roles of the central government office and Downing Street, and separating the positions of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the casualty of previous shortcomings as well as the author of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.