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Prime Minister Starmer traveled to north Wales on Thursday to announce the construction of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a significant policy event with both local and national implications. Yet, the prime minister did not dedicate much time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he spent it trying 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 goals in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his premiership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he wants his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is unable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, partly, the country as a whole – now practices politics and government.

The Prime Minister is unable to transform the political culture on his own, but he can do something about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could run the centre of government far better than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the country was in less dismay about his government than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in No 10

Some of the issues in Number 10 are about individuals. 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 stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. However, he must to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He dithered about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made a former official his top aide, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of the Administration

Every prime minister devote excessive time abroad and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time talking to MPs and listening to the citizens. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The biggest issues, however, are structural. It would be good to think that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 study on overhauling the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and Downing Street, and separating the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are currently critical.

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

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the casualty of previous shortcomings along with the architect of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.