🔗 Share this article

Sir Keir Starmer visited Wales' northern region this past Thursday to declare the construction of a new nuclear power station. This represents a significant policy event with both local and national implications. Yet, the PM did not devote extensive time in Wales to advocating solutions for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he used the time attempting to draw a line under the Labour leadership briefing row, informing journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions in recent days.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he desires his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. On the other hand, he is unable to achieve this because of the manner he – and, partly, the country more generally – now practices politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the political culture single-handedly, but he is able to take action about his personal involvement in it. The plain fact is that he could run the centre of government far better than he does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the nation was in less despair about his administration than it is, and that he was getting his messages across more successfully.

Personnel Problems in Downing Street

Some of the problems in Downing Street relate to individuals. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern accurately from the exterior. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Perhaps he is too busy. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. However, he must to up his game, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He hesitated about giving the crucial role of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made a former official his top aide, then substituted her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought a Treasury figure 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.

Systemic Issues at the Heart of Government

Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and too little conversing with parliamentarians and listening to 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 politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the story, as the chief of staff has recently.

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 reforming the government's central operations. His failure to grip these issues in the summer or afterward implies he did not. The often abject performance of the Labour administration suggests recommendations like restructuring the roles of the central government office and Downing Street, and dividing the positions of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are currently critical.

The political pre-eminence of PMs greatly exceeds the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He is the victim of past failures along with 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 let down. Unfortunately, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir himself.