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Sir Keir Starmer traveled to north Wales on Thursday to reveal the development of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the prime minister did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against 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 more generally. On the one hand, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is unable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, partly, the nation 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 government's core far better than he does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the nation was in less dismay about his administration than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the problems in Number 10 relate to personnel. The personal dynamics of every Downing Street operation are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. However, he must to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He hesitated about giving the crucial role of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He appointed Sue Gray his top aide, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Advisors on politics and policy have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of the Administration

All premiers spend too much time abroad and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and listening to the public. Premiers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as Mr McSweeney now has.

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 government's central operations. His inability to address these matters last July or afterward implies he did not. The often abject experience of the Labour administration suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and dividing the positions of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of PMs far outdistances the assistance provided to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the victim of past failures as well as the architect of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir would take control of the core and prioritize governmental structures have been let down. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir personally.