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Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales this past Thursday to announce the development of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he spent it attempting to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

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

The Prime Minister cannot transform the culture of politics single-handedly, but he can do something about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could run the centre of government much more effectively than he does. If he did this, he might find that the country was in less dismay about his administration than it is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

A number of the issues in Number 10 are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are hard to know accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make sound staffing decisions, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. But he needs to up his game, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the crucial role of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He appointed a former official his top aide, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought 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.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive time abroad and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little talking to parliamentarians and listening to the citizens. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who are often 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 believe that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s March 2024 study on overhauling the government's central operations. His inability to address these matters last July or since suggests he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and separating the positions of top official and head of the civil service, are now urgent.

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

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the victim of past failures along with the architect of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Unfortunately, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.