🔗 Share this article

Prime Minister Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to declare the development of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the PM did not devote much 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 reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary's goals in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has now become overall. Firstly, he wants his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this due to the manner he – and, partly, the country more generally – now practices political and governmental affairs.

The Prime Minister cannot transform the political culture on his own, but he is able to do something about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the government's core far better than he currently does. If he did this, he might find that the nation was in less despair about his government than it is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Number 10 relate to personnel. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. However, he must to up his game, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He dithered about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of Government

All premiers spend too much time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time conversing with parliamentarians and listening to the citizens. Premiers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir compounds by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who are often party loyalists or ambitious in politics, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney has recently.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 report on overhauling the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues last July or afterward implies he did not. The often abject experience of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the roles of the central government office and Downing Street, and separating the positions of top official and civil service head, are currently critical.

The political pre-eminence of PMs far outdistances the support available to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the victim of previous shortcomings as well as 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 disappointed. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.