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Prime Minister Starmer traveled to north Wales on Thursday to announce the building of a new nuclear power station. This represents a significant policy event with both local and national implications. Yet, the PM did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he spent it attempting to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, informing reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary's goals in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his premiership has now become more generally. Firstly, he desires his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this because of the manner he – and, partly, the nation as a whole – now conducts political and governmental affairs.

Sir Keir is unable to change the culture of politics single-handedly, but he can take action about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could run the government's core much more effectively than he currently does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more effectively.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the issues in Downing Street relate to personnel. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. But he needs to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He dithered about giving the key job of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He appointed Sue Gray his top aide, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Core of Government

Every prime minister spend too much time abroad and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little talking to parliamentarians and listening to the public. Prime ministers also spend 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 activists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's spring 2024 report on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to address these matters in the summer or since suggests he did not. The frequently dismal experience of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like restructuring the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and separating the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are currently critical.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. As a result, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of previous shortcomings as well as the architect of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir would take control of the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.