Sir Anthony Seldon said Number 10 Downing Street should remain the prime minister's home despite calls to change it. He argued that the building is not the problem. Instead, he said, "The fault lies with the prime ministers' lack of experience and skill," and suggested moving extra staff elsewhere instead.
From Sir Anthony Seldon, Initiator of The Museum of the Prime Minister, Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, UK
Richard Walker, Sir Keir Starmer's "cost of living champion", says Number 10 Downing Street is no longer fit for purpose and should become a flat or a museum (Report, October 24).
He is wrong. As the historian of the building and biographer of multiple recent prime ministers, I do not believe the building has contributed to the churn in our heads of government.
Instead, the fault lies with the prime ministers' lack of experience and skill, combined with the mad rush to fill the building with large numbers of often ill-suited special advisers and other functionaries.
Better to keep the prime minister in the building that has served them well throughout history. Only the highest-level staff should work there. Other functions and people should be shifted to the Cabinet Office, as is already happening in the newly combined "Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet". External policy advisers should move to the adjacent foreign office which, when opened for business in 1868, housed four major Whitehall departments. It has space aplenty.
Effective business will be improved greatly by this clear-out. The quality and dignity of the office of prime minister matters: so does the history. Visiting heads of government will not want to be photographed in front of a nondescript modern office, nor will ministers be inspired attending weekly cabinet meetings under neon lights in a characterless office.
We do need a Museum of the Prime Minister though, which should be established quickly in space nearby in Westminster, as colleagues and I are battling to achieve.