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Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales this past Thursday to reveal the building of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the PM did not devote much time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it attempting to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has now become more generally. Firstly, he desires his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, important things. Conversely, he is incapable to achieve this due to the manner he – and, to an extent, the nation more generally – now conducts political and governmental affairs.

The Prime Minister cannot transform the culture of politics 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 government's core much more effectively than he currently does. If he did this, he might find that the nation was in less despair about his administration than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

Some of the issues in Number 10 are about personnel. The personal dynamics of every Downing Street operation are hard to know accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to up his game, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He dithered about giving the crucial role of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Political and policy advisers 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, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little conversing with MPs and listening to the citizens. Premiers also allocate too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot express surprise when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the focus, as the chief of staff has recently.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His inability to address these matters in the summer or since suggests he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office indicates recommendations like restructuring the roles of the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of prime ministers greatly exceeds the assistance provided to them. Consequently, all aspects suffer, and much is done badly or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He stands as the victim of past failures as well as the architect of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the biggest loser from this failure is Sir Keir himself.