🔗 Share this article

Prime Minister Starmer visited Wales' northern region this past Thursday to announce the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a significant policy event with both local and national implications. However, the prime minister did not devote much time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's energy needs. Rather, he used the time attempting to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, informing reporters that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary's goals in recent days.

Therefore, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his premiership has evolved into more generally. Firstly, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, important things. On the other hand, he is unable to achieve this due to the way he – and, to an extent, the country as a whole – now practices politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to change the culture of politics single-handedly, but he is able to do something about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could manage the centre of government much more effectively than he currently does. If he did this, he could discover that the country was in less dismay about his administration than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

Some of the issues in Downing Street are about personnel. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are hard to know accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to improve his performance, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He dithered about giving the crucial role of top civil servant to Chris Wormald.
• He made a former official his top aide, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He recruited Darren Jones in from the Treasury as his deputy.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Political and policy advisers have come and gone.
• It is a mess.

Structural Challenges at the Core of the Administration

Every prime minister spend too much time overseas and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and hearing the citizens. Prime ministers also spend 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 are often party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The most significant problems, 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 afterward implies he did not. The frequently dismal performance of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like restructuring the functions of the Cabinet Office and No 10, and dividing the jobs 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 ignored.

This isn't Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the casualty of previous shortcomings along with the author of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Sadly, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.