Inside 10 Downing Street

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of acting more like a civil servant than a PM, as Isabel Hardman explores the internal power struggle that’s afflicting the government’s early tenure

- Isabel Hardman

What is Keir Starmer’s problem? The prime minister seems to be struggling to connect with voters and some parts of his own party, making government look even harder than it actually is – especially when you have a majority the size of his. The feeling in Westminster is that his backbenchers and some ministers seem depressed and as though they are in the midterm of a beleaguered government; still not breathing a sigh of relief and joy at returning to power and being able to change things.

An increasing complaint is that he is listening to the wrong people, surrounded by advisers who are too much like him – maybe too white, too male, and a bit too stale. When Starmer chose Chris Wormald as the new head of the civil service recently, it was taken by some as new evidence of his ability to overlook top women. The frontrunners for the cabinet secretary job had been Tamara Finkelstein, currently at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, or Ministry of Justice permanent secretary Antonia Romeo.

Starmer had apparently gone off the idea of the latter after consulting with colleagues, and his pick of Wormald was a more traditional choice: Romeo enjoyed being photographed at Westminster parties, whereas Wormald prefers to be out of the limelight and firmly within the corridors of Whitehall. Once again, Starmer was thinking more like a civil servant rather than a politician who really wants to challenge the system, regardless of what he claims. So it is more of a mindset problem.