🔗 Share this article

Sir Keir Starmer visited Wales' northern region on Thursday to declare the building of a new nuclear power station. This is a significant policy event with both local and national implications. However, the PM did not dedicate much time in Wales to promoting solutions for the UK's energy needs. Rather, he used the time trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing reporters that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his premiership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he desires his administration to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, important things. Conversely, he is incapable to achieve this because of the way he – and, to an extent, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir cannot change the political culture on his own, but he is able to do something about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could manage the government's core much more effectively than he currently does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation 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

A number of the problems in Downing Street are about individuals. The interpersonal relations of every Downing Street operation are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. But he needs to improve his performance, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He hesitated about giving the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his chief secretary.
• His media advisors have been frequently replaced.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Core of Government

All premiers devote excessive time abroad and on international matters, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, 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. Yet leaders cannot express surprise when their political appointees, who are often party loyalists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as Mr McSweeney now has.

The biggest issues, though, are systemic. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 report on overhauling the government's central operations. His failure to address these matters in the summer or afterward suggests he did not. The frequently dismal experience of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like reorganizing the functions of the Cabinet Office and Downing Street, and dividing the jobs of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The dominant political role of PMs far outdistances the support available to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and much is done badly or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He stands as the victim of previous shortcomings as well as the author of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the core and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Unfortunately, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.