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Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales 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 prime minister did not devote much 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, informing journalists that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has now become overall. Firstly, he desires his administration to be doing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is incapable to achieve this because of the way he – and, to an extent, the nation more generally – now conducts political and governmental affairs.

Sir Keir cannot transform the political culture on his own, but he is able to take action 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 country was in less despair about his government than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in No 10

A number of the issues in Downing Street are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are hard to know well from outside. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make sound staffing decisions, or maintain them. Perhaps he is too busy. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. However, he must to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He dithered about assigning the key job of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have been frequently replaced.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of the Administration

Every prime minister spend too much time abroad and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time conversing with MPs and listening to the public. Premiers also allocate too much time engaging with the press, 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 politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The biggest issues, though, are systemic. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s March 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His inability to address these matters last July or since implies he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office suggests recommendations like restructuring the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are currently critical.

The political pre-eminence of PMs far outdistances the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and much is done badly or ignored.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the casualty of past failures as well as the author of present ones. But those who hoped Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.