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Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales this past Thursday to reveal the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a major policy announcement with both local and national implications. However, the prime minister did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it attempting to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing 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. Firstly, he desires his administration to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is unable to achieve this because of the way he – and, partly, the nation as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

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

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the issues in Number 10 are about personnel. The interpersonal relations 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. But he needs to up his game, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He appointed Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He brought Darren Jones in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• The situation is chaotic.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of the Administration

Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with MPs and hearing the public. Prime ministers also spend too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The most significant problems, however, are structural. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s March 2024 study on reforming the centre of government. His failure to address these matters in the summer or since suggests he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office indicates recommendations like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are currently critical.

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

This isn't Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of previous shortcomings along with 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 let down. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.