🔗 Share this article

Prime Minister Starmer traveled to north Wales on Thursday to reveal the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a major policy announcement with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he spent it trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that No 10 had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. Firstly, he desires his administration to be doing, and to be seen to be doing, important things. Conversely, he is unable to accomplish this because of the manner he – and, partly, the country as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir cannot transform the political culture single-handedly, but he can do something about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could run the centre of government far better than he currently does. If he did this, he could discover that the country was in less dismay about his government than it is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Staffing Issues in No 10

Some of the issues in Downing Street are about personnel. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are hard to know well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. However, he must to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or incompletely.

• He dithered about giving the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He appointed Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of the Administration

All premiers spend too much time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with MPs and hearing the public. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The biggest issues, however, are structural. It would be beneficial to think that Sir Keir reviewed the a think tank's spring 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His failure to address these matters last July or since implies he did not. The often abject experience of the Labour administration indicates recommendations like reorganizing the functions of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and separating the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of PMs greatly exceeds the support available to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the casualty of past failures along with the author of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and prioritize governmental structures have been disappointed. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.