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Sir Keir Starmer visited Wales' northern region this past Thursday to declare the building of a new nuclear power station. This is a major policy announcement with both local and national implications. However, the PM did not devote extensive time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he spent it trying to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, informing journalists that Downing Street had not undermined the health secretary's goals in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his premiership has now become more generally. Firstly, he wants his administration to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, important things. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, partly, the nation more generally – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister cannot transform the culture of politics on his own, but he can do something about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could run the government's core far better than he currently 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 communicating his points more effectively.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the issues in Number 10 are about personnel. The personal dynamics of every Downing Street operation are difficult to discern well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make sound staffing decisions, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. However, he must to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with MPs and hearing the citizens. Premiers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who are often party loyalists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the focus, as the chief of staff has recently.

The most significant problems, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to address these matters last July or afterward implies he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and separating the jobs of top official and civil service head, are currently critical.

The dominant political role 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 sole responsibility. He stands as the casualty of previous shortcomings as well as the author of present ones. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.