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Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales this past Thursday to declare the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the PM did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his premiership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he wants his government to be doing, and to be seen to be doing, important things. Conversely, he is unable to achieve this because of the manner he – and, partly, the nation as a whole – now practices politics and government.

Sir Keir cannot transform the culture of politics single-handedly, but he is able to do something about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the centre of government much more effectively than he does. If he did this, he might find that the country was in less despair about his administration than it is, and that he was communicating his points more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the issues in Number 10 are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are hard to know well from outside. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or maintain 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 hesitated about giving the crucial role of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He made a former official his chief of staff, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• The situation is chaotic.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of the Administration

Every prime minister spend too much time abroad and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time talking to MPs and hearing the citizens. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 report on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues in the summer or since suggests he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the positions of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

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

This isn't Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of previous shortcomings along with the author of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the core and prioritize governmental structures have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.