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Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to reveal the building of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the PM did not devote extensive time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's energy needs. Rather, he spent it attempting to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, informing reporters that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. Firstly, he wants his administration to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to achieve this because of the manner he – and, partly, the country as a whole – now conducts political and governmental affairs.

The Prime Minister cannot change the political culture single-handedly, but he can take action about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could run the centre of government far better than he currently does. If he did this, he could discover that the country was in less dismay about his administration than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Staffing Issues in No 10

Some of the issues in Number 10 are about personnel. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are hard to know well from outside. 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 dithered about giving the key job of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray 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 come and gone.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of Government

All premiers devote excessive time overseas and on international matters, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little conversing with MPs and hearing the citizens. Prime ministers also spend too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The biggest issues, though, are structural. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 study on reforming the centre of government. His failure to address these matters last July or afterward suggests he did not. The frequently dismal performance of Labour’s time in office indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, and separating the jobs of top official and civil service head, are currently critical.

The political pre-eminence of PMs far outdistances the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the victim of previous shortcomings as well as the architect of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.