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Prime Minister Starmer traveled to north Wales on Thursday to reveal the development of a new nuclear power station. This represents a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the PM did not dedicate extensive time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he used the time trying to put an end to the Labour leadership briefing row, informing reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he wants his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, important things. On the other hand, he is incapable to accomplish this due to the way he – and, partly, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir cannot transform 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 does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his administration than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Personnel Problems in No 10

Some of the issues in Downing Street relate to personnel. The personal dynamics of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern well from outside. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make sound staffing decisions, or maintain them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. However, he must to up his game, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the finance ministry as his chief secretary.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of the Administration

Every prime minister devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little talking to parliamentarians and listening to the citizens. Premiers also allocate too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The most significant problems, however, are structural. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 report on reforming the centre of government. His failure to address these matters last July or since implies he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of top official and head of the civil service, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of PMs greatly exceeds the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and much is done badly or neglected.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the casualty of previous shortcomings along with the architect of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.