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Sir Keir Starmer visited Wales' northern region this past Thursday to reveal the building of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with both local and national implications. However, the prime minister did not devote much time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it trying to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, telling journalists that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary's goals earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his premiership 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 due to the way he – and, to an extent, the nation as a whole – now practices politics and government.

Sir Keir cannot change the political culture on his own, but he is able to take action about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could manage the government's core much more effectively than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the nation was in less despair about his administration than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Number 10 are about personnel. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make sound staffing decisions, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to up his game, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time talking to MPs and listening to the public. Prime ministers also allocate too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The biggest issues, though, are systemic. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s March 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His inability to grip these issues in the summer or since implies he did not. The frequently dismal performance of the Labour administration suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and separating the jobs 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. As a result, all aspects suffer, and much is done badly or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the casualty of past failures along with the author of present ones. But those who hoped Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.