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Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales this past Thursday to reveal the construction of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the PM did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he used the time trying to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, 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 prime ministership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he desires his government to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, important things. Conversely, he is unable to accomplish this because of the way he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to change the culture of politics on his own, but he is able to take action about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the government's core far better than he currently does. Should he achieve 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 effectively.

Staffing Issues in No 10

Some of the issues in Number 10 relate to individuals. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are hard to know well from outside. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to improve his performance, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He dithered about assigning the crucial role of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his top aide, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have been frequently replaced.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

All premiers spend too much time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and listening to the public. Premiers also spend 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 tend to be party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The most significant problems, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's March 2024 study on overhauling the centre of government. His failure to grip these issues last July or since suggests he did not. The frequently dismal performance of Labour’s time in office suggests recommendations like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the positions of top official and head of the civil service, are currently critical.

The dominant political role of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of previous shortcomings as well as the architect of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Unfortunately, the biggest loser from this failure is Sir Keir himself.