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Sir Keir Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region on Thursday to declare the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a major policy announcement 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 attempting to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, informing journalists that No 10 had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. Firstly, he desires his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is unable to achieve this due to the way he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister is unable to change 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 manage the government's core far better than he does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the country was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Number 10 are about personnel. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are hard to know accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make sound staffing decisions, or maintain 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 top civil servant to a senior official.
• He appointed Sue Gray his top aide, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

All premiers spend too much time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with MPs and hearing the public. Prime ministers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party loyalists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The biggest issues, however, are structural. It would be good to think that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's March 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues last July or since suggests he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office indicates recommendations like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the positions of top official and head of the civil service, are currently critical.

The political pre-eminence of PMs 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 stands as the casualty of previous shortcomings as well as the author of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Unfortunately, the biggest loser from this failure is Sir Keir himself.