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Sir Keir Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region on Thursday to announce the construction of a new nuclear power station. This represents a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he spent it trying to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling reporters that Downing Street had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has now become overall. On the one hand, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is incapable to achieve this due to the manner he – and, to an extent, the nation more generally – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister cannot transform the culture of politics on his own, but he is able to take action about his own role 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 dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the issues in Number 10 relate to personnel. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are hard to know accurately from the exterior. 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 up his game, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his top aide, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of the Administration

Every prime minister devote excessive time abroad and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and insufficient time conversing with MPs and listening to the public. 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 are often party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the focus, as the chief of staff now has.

The biggest issues, however, are structural. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 study on overhauling the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues in the summer or since suggests he did not. The often abject experience of the Labour administration suggests recommendations like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers far outdistances the assistance provided to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and much is done badly or ignored.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the casualty of previous shortcomings along with the author of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.