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Prime Minister Starmer visited Wales' northern region this past Thursday to reveal the building of a new nuclear power station. This represents a significant policy event with both local and national implications. However, the prime minister did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he spent it trying to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, telling reporters that Downing Street had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. Conversely, he is unable to achieve this because of the manner he – and, partly, the country more generally – now practices politics and government.

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 plain fact is that he could manage the government's core far better than he does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his government than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Downing Street are about personnel. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are hard to know well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. However, he must to up his game, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He dithered about assigning the crucial role of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He appointed Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Advisors on politics and policy have come and gone.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little talking to parliamentarians and hearing the citizens. Prime ministers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party loyalists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's spring 2024 study on overhauling the government's central operations. His failure to address these matters last July or since implies he did not. The often abject experience of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like restructuring the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of top official and head of the civil service, are currently critical.

The dominant political role of PMs far outdistances the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and much is done badly or ignored.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the victim of previous shortcomings along with the architect of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir personally.