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Sir Keir Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region this past Thursday to declare the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a significant policy event with both local and national implications. Yet, the PM did not devote much time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he used the time trying to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, telling journalists that No 10 had not undermined the health secretary's goals earlier this week.

Therefore, 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 way he – and, partly, the nation as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister is unable to change the political culture single-handedly, but he can 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. If he did this, he could discover that the country was in less despair about his administration than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Number 10 relate to personnel. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation 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. 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 giving the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He appointed a former official his top aide, then substituted her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Core of the Administration

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and too little talking to MPs and hearing the public. Premiers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir compounds by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot express surprise when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The biggest issues, though, are structural. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the a think tank's spring 2024 study on reforming the government's central operations. His inability to address these matters in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like restructuring the roles of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and separating the positions of top official and head of the civil service, 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 neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of past failures as well as the architect of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and prioritize governmental structures have been let down. Sadly, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir personally.