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Prime Minister Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region on Thursday to announce the development of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the PM did not devote much 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 earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has now become more generally. On the one hand, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be perceived as performing, important things. On the other hand, he is incapable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, partly, the nation as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the political culture on his own, but he is able to 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 does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the nation was in less despair about his government than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

Some of the issues in Downing Street relate to individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are hard to know accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make sound staffing decisions, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. 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 Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He brought Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of the Administration

Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time talking to parliamentarians and listening to the public. Premiers also spend too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party loyalists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the a think tank's spring 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His failure to address these matters in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The frequently dismal experience of the Labour administration suggests recommendations like restructuring the roles of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of top official and head of the civil service, are currently critical.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers far outdistances 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 fault alone. He is the casualty of previous shortcomings along with the author of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.