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Sir Keir Starmer visited Wales' northern region this past Thursday to announce the construction of a new nuclear power station. This represents a major policy announcement with both local and national implications. However, the PM did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's energy needs. Rather, he used the time attempting to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary's goals in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he wants his government to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is unable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now conducts political and governmental affairs.

Sir Keir is unable to change the culture of politics single-handedly, but he is able to do something about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could run the centre of government much more effectively than he does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the country was in less despair about his government than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more effectively.

Staffing Issues in No 10

A number of the problems in Downing Street are about personnel. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear 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 up his game, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the crucial role of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He made a former official his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He brought Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of Government

All premiers spend too much time abroad and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and hearing the citizens. Premiers also spend too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their politically appointed staff, who are often party loyalists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the focus, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s March 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His failure to grip these issues last July or afterward suggests he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office suggests recommendations like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of PMs far outdistances the support available to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and much is done badly or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of previous shortcomings as well as the architect of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.