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Sir Keir Starmer visited Wales' northern region on Thursday to announce 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 devote much time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he used the time trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing journalists that No 10 had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a small-scale example of what his premiership has evolved into more generally. Firstly, he wants his administration to be doing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is unable to accomplish this because of the manner he – and, partly, the nation as a whole – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister is unable to change the culture of politics single-handedly, but he is able to take action about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could run the government's core much more effectively than he does. If he did this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his government than it is, and that he was communicating his points more effectively.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Number 10 relate to personnel. The personal dynamics of every Downing Street operation 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. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. However, he must to up his game, not do things slowly or by halves.

• He hesitated about giving the key job of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his top aide, then substituted her with a political strategist.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his chief secretary.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• The situation is chaotic.

Structural Challenges at the Heart of Government

All premiers spend too much time abroad and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and insufficient time conversing with parliamentarians and hearing the public. Prime ministers also allocate too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by doing it poorly. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who tend to be party loyalists or politically ambitious, cross lines or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be beneficial to believe that Sir Keir read the a think tank's March 2024 study on overhauling the government's central operations. His inability to grip these issues last July or since implies he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration 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 currently critical.

The dominant political role of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. As a result, all aspects suffer, and much is done badly or ignored.

This isn't Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of past failures as well as the architect of present ones. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir would take control of the centre and take the machinery of government seriously have been let down. Sadly, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.