🔗 Share this article

Sir Keir Starmer traveled to north Wales this past Thursday to declare the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a significant policy event with implications at local and countrywide levels. However, the prime minister did not devote extensive time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it attempting to draw a line under the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, informing journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary's goals earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day acted as a microcosm of what his prime ministership has evolved into more generally. On the one hand, he desires his government to be performing, and to be seen to be doing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this due to the manner he – and, partly, the country more generally – now conducts politics and government.

Sir Keir is unable to transform the political culture on his own, but he is able to do something about his own role in it. The plain fact is that he could run the centre of government far better than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he might find that the nation was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more effectively.

Staffing Issues in Downing Street

A number of the issues in Downing Street relate to personnel. The personal dynamics 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 stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Possibly he lacks genuine interest. But he needs to up his game, avoid slow progress or by halves.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of top civil servant to a senior official.
• He appointed a former official his chief of staff, then replaced her with Morgan McSweeney.
• He brought a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his chief secretary.
• His communications chiefs have chopped and changed.
• Political and policy advisers have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Core of Government

All premiers spend too much time overseas and on foreign affairs, areas where Sir Keir ought to assign more tasks, and insufficient time conversing with parliamentarians and listening to the citizens. Prime ministers also spend too much time doing media, which Sir Keir worsens by performing inadequately. But premiers cannot express surprise when their politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the story, as the chief of staff now has.

The most significant problems, though, are structural. It would be good to believe that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s March 2024 report on overhauling the centre of government. His failure to address these matters in the summer or since suggests he did not. The frequently dismal experience of Labour’s time in office suggests IfG proposals like restructuring the functions of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of cabinet secretary and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers greatly exceeds the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and much is done badly or ignored.

This is not Sir Keir’s fault alone. He stands as the casualty of previous shortcomings as well as the author of current mistakes. But those who hoped Sir Keir might get a grip on the core and prioritize governmental structures have been let down. Unfortunately, the biggest loser from this shortcoming is Sir Keir personally.