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Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to reveal the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a significant policy event with both local and national implications. However, the PM did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's energy needs. Rather, he spent it trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that Downing Street had not undermined the health secretary's goals in recent days.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has now become more generally. On the one hand, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to achieve this because of the manner he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now practices political and governmental affairs.

Sir Keir cannot transform the political culture on his own, but he can do something about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could manage the centre of government far better than he does. If he did this, he might find that the country was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

A number of the problems in Number 10 relate to personnel. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to improve his performance, avoid slow progress 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 brought a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs 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

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time talking to MPs and hearing the citizens. Premiers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir worsens by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot express surprise when their political appointees, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The most significant problems, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's March 2024 report on reforming the centre of government. His inability to address these matters in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the positions of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, 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 neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the victim of past failures along with the architect of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Sadly, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.