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Sir Keir Starmer visited Wales' northern region on Thursday to announce the building of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with both local and national implications. Yet, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it attempting to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling reporters that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary's goals earlier this week.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has now become more generally. Firstly, he wants his administration to be doing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. Conversely, he is unable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to change the political culture single-handedly, but he can do something about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could manage the centre of government much more effectively than he does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the nation was in less despair about his administration than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Staffing Issues in No 10

A number of the problems in Number 10 are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are hard to know well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or stick with 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 hesitated about giving the key job of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Core of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little talking to MPs and listening to the public. Premiers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their political appointees, who are often party activists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the focus, as the chief of staff now has.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the a think tank's spring 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His failure to address these matters in the summer or since suggests he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like restructuring the functions of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are now urgent.

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

This isn't Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the casualty of past failures along with the architect of present ones. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and prioritize governmental structures have been let down. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir personally.