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Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to declare the building of a new nuclear power station. This represents a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the PM did not devote much time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's energy needs. Rather, he used the time trying to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, informing reporters that No 10 had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. Firstly, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is unable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, partly, the country as a whole – now practices politics and government.

Sir Keir cannot 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 manage the government's core far better than he does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his administration than it is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Personnel Problems in No 10

A number of the issues in Number 10 are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. But he needs 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 made Sue Gray his top aide, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his chief secretary.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little talking to MPs and hearing the public. Premiers also allocate too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir worsens by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who are often party loyalists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as the chief of staff has recently.

The most significant problems, however, are systemic. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's March 2024 study on overhauling the centre of government. His inability to address these matters in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and No 10, and separating the positions of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of PMs far outdistances the support available to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of past failures along with the architect of present ones. But those who hoped Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.