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Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to announce the construction of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a major policy announcement 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. Instead, he used the time attempting to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his premiership has now become overall. On the one hand, he wants his administration to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is incapable to achieve this due to the way he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the culture of politics single-handedly, but he is able to take action about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could run the government's core much more effectively than he does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the country was in less despair about his administration than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Personnel Problems in No 10

Some of the issues in Number 10 are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are hard to know well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make sound staffing decisions, or maintain them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. However, he must to improve his performance, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He dithered about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He appointed a former official his top aide, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of the Administration

All premiers devote excessive time overseas and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and insufficient time talking to parliamentarians and listening to the citizens. Prime ministers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party activists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as the chief of staff has recently.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His inability to address these matters last July or afterward suggests he did not. The frequently dismal performance of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. As a result, 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 as well as the architect of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.