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Sir Keir Starmer traveled to north Wales on Thursday to reveal the construction of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the PM did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he spent it trying to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, informing journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his premiership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he wants his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is unable to achieve this due to the manner he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now practices politics and government.

The Prime Minister cannot change the culture of politics on his own, but he is able to take action about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the government's core much more effectively than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the country was in less despair 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 Downing Street are about personnel. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are hard to know well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to improve his performance, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He dithered about giving the crucial role of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his top aide, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Advisors on politics and policy have come and gone.
• The situation is chaotic.

Systemic Issues at the Core of the Administration

All premiers spend too much time abroad and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and hearing the public. Prime ministers 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 activists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The biggest issues, however, are structural. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir reviewed the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 study on overhauling the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues last July or since implies he did not. The often abject performance of Labour’s time in office indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the positions of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of PMs greatly exceeds the support available to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and much is done badly or neglected.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the victim of past failures along with the author of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and prioritize governmental structures have been disappointed. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.