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Prime Minister Starmer traveled to north Wales on Thursday to announce the construction of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's energy needs. Instead, 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 goals earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his premiership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he wants his administration to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, important things. On the other hand, he is incapable to achieve this due to the way he – and, partly, the nation as a whole – now conducts political and governmental affairs.

The Prime Minister cannot change the culture of politics single-handedly, but he can do something about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the centre of government far better than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in No 10

Some of the issues in Downing Street are about personnel. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are hard to know accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make sound staffing decisions, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. However, he must to up his game, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He hesitated about giving the key job of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on international matters, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and insufficient time conversing with MPs and hearing the citizens. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the focus, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s March 2024 study on overhauling the government's central operations. His failure to grip these issues last July or afterward suggests he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like restructuring the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and separating the positions of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers far outdistances the support available to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the casualty of previous shortcomings along with 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. Sadly, the biggest loser from this failure is Sir Keir himself.