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Prime Minister Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region on Thursday to declare the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the prime minister did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he used the time trying to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, telling journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his premiership has now become overall. On the one hand, he desires his government to be doing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is incapable to achieve this due to the way he – and, to an extent, the nation more generally – now practices political and governmental affairs.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the culture of politics single-handedly, but he can do something about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could run the centre of government much more effectively than he does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation was in less despair about his government than it is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the problems in Number 10 relate to individuals. The personal dynamics of every Downing Street operation are difficult to discern well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to up his game, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He dithered about assigning the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He appointed Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• The situation is chaotic.

Systemic Issues at the Core of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive 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 citizens. Premiers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The biggest issues, though, are structural. It would be good to think that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues last July or since implies he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office suggests recommendations like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of PMs greatly exceeds the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the casualty of past failures as well as the author of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the biggest loser from this failure is Sir Keir personally.