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Sir Keir Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region on Thursday to declare the construction of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a significant policy event with both local and national implications. However, the prime minister did not dedicate much time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he used the time attempting to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, informing journalists that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his premiership has now become overall. Firstly, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this because of the way he – and, partly, the nation more generally – now practices political and governmental affairs.

Sir Keir cannot change the political culture on his own, but he can take action about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could run the centre of government far better than he does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation was in less despair about his government than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in No 10

A number of the issues in Downing Street relate to personnel. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are hard to know well from outside. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make sound staffing decisions, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. But he needs to up his game, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He made a former official his top aide, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of the Administration

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little talking to MPs and hearing the citizens. Premiers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who are often party activists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The most significant problems, however, are systemic. It would be good to think that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s March 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to address these matters in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like restructuring the functions of the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. As a result, everything currently suffers, and much is done badly or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He stands as the casualty of past failures as well as the architect of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and prioritize governmental structures have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.