🔗 Share this article

Prime Minister Starmer visited Wales' northern region on Thursday to announce the construction of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. Yet, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he spent it attempting to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing reporters that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary's goals in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his premiership has now become overall. Firstly, he wants his government 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, to an extent, the country as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the culture of politics single-handedly, but he can take action about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the centre of government much more effectively than he does. If he did this, he might find that the nation was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Personnel Problems in No 10

Some of the issues in Downing Street are about personnel. The interpersonal relations 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 improve his performance, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He dithered about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to Chris Wormald.
• He made a former official his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of Government

All premiers devote excessive time overseas and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time talking to parliamentarians and listening to the public. Premiers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who tend to be party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as the chief of staff has recently.

The biggest issues, however, are systemic. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's spring 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His failure to address these matters in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The often abject experience of Labour’s time in office indicates IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and separating the positions of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of prime ministers far outdistances the support available to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the casualty of previous shortcomings as well as the architect of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been disappointed. Sadly, the biggest loser from this failure is Sir Keir himself.