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Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to reveal the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the prime minister did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's energy needs. Instead, he spent it trying to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, telling journalists that No 10 had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has now become more generally. On the one hand, he wants his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to achieve this because of the manner he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now practices political and governmental affairs.

The Prime Minister cannot transform the political culture single-handedly, but he is able to do something about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the government's core much more effectively than he currently does. If he did this, he could discover that the country was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Number 10 relate to individuals. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime 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. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. However, he must to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the crucial role of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He appointed Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of the Administration

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and listening to the public. Prime ministers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. 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 story, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 study on reforming the centre of government. His inability to address these matters in the summer or since suggests he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration suggests recommendations like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the casualty of previous shortcomings as well as the author of present ones. 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 himself.