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Prime Minister Starmer visited Wales' northern region on Thursday to announce the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the PM did not dedicate much time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he used the time trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing reporters that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he wants his administration to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this because of the manner he – and, to an extent, the nation as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to change 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 does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his administration than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the issues in Number 10 relate to individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern well from outside. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make sound staffing decisions, 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 giving the crucial role of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made a former official his top aide, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited 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.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and insufficient time conversing with parliamentarians and listening to the public. Prime ministers also allocate too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 study on overhauling the centre of government. His inability to grip these issues in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The frequently dismal performance of Labour’s time in office indicates IfG proposals like restructuring the roles of the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of PMs greatly exceeds the support available to them. Consequently, all aspects suffer, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the victim of past failures as well as the author of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.