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Sir Keir Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region on Thursday to reveal the development of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he desires his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is incapable to achieve this because of the way he – and, to an extent, the country as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the political culture single-handedly, but he can do something about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could run the centre of government far better than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the country was in less despair about his administration than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Number 10 relate to individuals. The personal dynamics of every Downing Street operation are hard to know accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make sound staffing decisions, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. But he needs to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He hesitated about giving the key job of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made a former official his chief of staff, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs 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 abroad and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and listening to the public. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their politically appointed staff, who tend to be party loyalists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The biggest issues, however, are structural. It would be good to think that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's spring 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues last July or since implies he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office indicates recommendations like restructuring the functions of the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, and dividing the positions of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

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

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the casualty of past failures 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 let down. Sadly, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.