10 Downing St Is Not Up to the Job

Sir Keir Starmer traveled to Wales' northern region this past Thursday to reveal the building of a fresh nuclear energy facility. This represents a major policy announcement with both local and national implications. However, the PM did not devote much time in Wales to promoting answers for the UK's power requirements. Instead, he spent it trying to put an end to the briefing controversy within Labour's leadership, telling journalists that Downing Street had not briefed against the health secretary’s ambitions earlier this week.

As such, Sir Keir’s day served as a small-scale example of what his prime ministership has now become overall. On the one hand, he desires his government to be doing, and to be perceived as performing, important things. On the other hand, he is unable to achieve this because of the manner he – and, partly, the nation more generally – now conducts politics and government.

The Prime Minister is unable to change the political culture on his own, but he can take action about his own role in it. The simple truth is that he could manage the government's core far better than he currently does. Should he achieve this, he could discover that the country was in less dismay about his government than it currently is, and that he was communicating his points more successfully.

Personnel Problems in No 10

A number of the problems in Downing Street are about personnel. The interpersonal relations of any No 10 regime are difficult to discern well from outside. Yet it appears clear that Sir Keir fails to make good personnel choices, or stick with them. Maybe he is overly occupied. Perhaps he is not really interested. But he needs to improve his performance, not do things slowly or incompletely.

• He hesitated about assigning the key job of cabinet secretary to a senior official.
• He made Sue Gray his top aide, then replaced her with a political strategist.
• He recruited a Treasury figure in from the finance ministry as his deputy.
• His communications chiefs have been frequently replaced.
• Advisors on politics and policy have entered and exited.
• It is a mess.

Systemic Issues at the Core of the Administration

All premiers spend too much time abroad and on foreign affairs, where Sir Keir should delegate more, and insufficient time talking to MPs and hearing the citizens. Prime ministers also spend too much time engaging with the press, which Sir Keir worsens by doing it poorly. Yet leaders cannot claim to be surprised when their political appointees, who are often party loyalists or ambitious in politics, overstep boundaries or become the story, as the chief of staff has recently.

The most significant problems, though, are systemic. 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 address these matters last July or since implies he did not. The frequently dismal performance of the Labour administration indicates IfG proposals like restructuring the roles of the central government office and No 10, and dividing the jobs of top official and civil service head, are now urgent.

The political pre-eminence of prime ministers greatly exceeds the support available to them. As a result, everything currently suffers, and many tasks are poorly executed or neglected.

This is not Sir Keir’s sole responsibility. He is the victim of past failures as well as the architect of present ones. But those who hoped Sir Keir would take control of the core and prioritize governmental structures have been disappointed. Sadly, the primary casualty from this failure is Sir Keir personally.