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Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales this past Thursday to reveal the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a significant policy event with both local and national implications. However, the prime minister did not devote much time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he spent it trying to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing journalists 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 overall. On the one hand, he wants his administration to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is unable to achieve this because of the way he – and, to an extent, the nation as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister cannot change the political culture on his own, but he can do something about his own role in it. The simple truth is that he could run the government's core far better than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the nation was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the problems in Number 10 are about personnel. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are hard to know well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to up his game, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He dithered about giving the crucial role of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He appointed a former official his top aide, then substituted her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

Every prime minister spend too much time overseas and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little conversing with MPs and hearing the public. Premiers also spend too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party activists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues in the summer or since implies he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles 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 assistance provided to them. Consequently, all aspects suffer, and much is done badly or ignored.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the casualty of past failures along with the author of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.