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Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to reveal the construction of a new nuclear power station. This is a major policy announcement with both local and national implications. However, the PM did not dedicate much time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he used the time attempting to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, telling reporters that No 10 had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his premiership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he desires his government to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to achieve this due to the way he – and, to an extent, the nation as a whole – now conducts political and governmental affairs.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the political culture on his own, but he is able to do something about his own role in it. The simple truth is that he could run the centre of government far better than he does. If he did this, he might find that the nation was in less dismay about his administration than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the issues in Number 10 are about personnel. The personal dynamics 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 maintain them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. However, he must to up his game, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He dithered about giving the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Advisors on politics and policy have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of the Administration

All premiers spend too much time overseas and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time talking to parliamentarians and hearing the citizens. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as the chief of staff has recently.

The most significant problems, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 report on reforming the centre of government. His failure to grip these issues in the summer or since suggests he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers far outdistances the assistance provided to them. As a result, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the victim of previous shortcomings as well as 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. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir personally.