🔗 Share this article 10 Downing Street Fails to Be Fit for Purpose Sir Keir Starmer visited north Wales on Thursday to declare the construction of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This is a significant policy event with both local and national implications. Yet, the prime minister did not devote much time in Wales to advocating answers for the UK's power requirements. Rather, he spent it trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that Downing Street had not undermined the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week. Therefore, Sir Keir’s day served as a microcosm of what his premiership has evolved into overall. On the one hand, he desires his administration to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, significant actions. Conversely, he is incapable to accomplish this because of the way he – and, partly, the nation more generally – now conducts politics and government. Sir Keir is unable to change the political culture on his own, but he can do something about his personal involvement in it. The simple truth is that he could run the government's core much more effectively than he does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the nation was in less dismay about his administration than it is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully. Personnel Problems in Downing Street A number of the issues in Number 10 are about personnel. The personal dynamics of every Downing Street operation are hard to know accurately from the exterior. But it seems obvious that Sir Keir does not make good personnel choices, or maintain them. Perhaps he is too busy. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to improve his performance, not do things slowly or by halves. He dithered about giving the crucial role of cabinet secretary to a senior official. He appointed Sue Gray his chief of staff, then replaced her with a political strategist. He brought a Treasury figure in from the Treasury as his chief secretary. His media advisors have chopped and changed. Political and policy advisers have come and gone. It is a mess. Systemic Issues at the Core of the Administration Every prime minister devote excessive time overseas and on foreign affairs, 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 performing inadequately. But premiers cannot claim to be surprised when their politically appointed staff, who are often party activists or politically ambitious, overstep boundaries or become the focus, as the chief of staff now has. The biggest issues, though, are structural. It would be good to think that Sir Keir read the Institute for Government’s spring 2024 study on overhauling the centre of government. His failure to grip these issues last July or afterward suggests he did not. The often abject experience of the Labour administration suggests recommendations like reorganizing the functions of the central government office and Downing Street, and separating the jobs of cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, are now urgent. The dominant political role of prime ministers greatly exceeds the assistance provided to them. Consequently, everything currently suffers, and much is done badly or ignored. This isn't Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the casualty of past failures as well as the architect of current mistakes. Yet individuals who expected Sir Keir might get a grip on the centre and prioritize governmental structures have been let down. Sadly, the primary casualty from this shortcoming is Sir Keir himself.