Each ploy required to shore up the prime minister’s position exposes how fragile his authority has become Each ploy required to shore up the prime minister’s position exposes how fragile his authority has become I t was said of John Major, the Tory prime minister fatally damaged by party infighting, that he was “ in office but not in power ”. Sir Keir Starmer finds himself in a similar spot. His government is planning a king’s speech that contains ambitious proposals. But after Wednesday’s pomp