Loyal ‘Malcolm Clucker’ left at top of pecking order as Johnson fought for his life in hospital
Lee Cain was the adviser who stuck by Boris Johnson when his Cabinet career seemed finished, and was given the ultimate reward for his loyalty with a seat at Downing Street’s top table when the man he called “the boss” swept to power.
Mr Cain’s influence inside No10 was such that when the prime minister was in hospital with Covid in April 2020 colleagues said, only halfjokingly, that Mr Cain was left “running the country”.
His official role was director of communications, but Whatsapp exchanges show that his remit went well beyond that and involved helping to decide policies.
He helped shape the prime minister’s thoughts by telling him he was straying too far ahead of public opinion when he wanted to open the country up more than he did in June 2020. When Chris Heaton-harris, the rail minister at the time, suggested to Mr Johnson in May 2020 that the border with France could be reopened, Mr Cain intervened.
He wrote: “Quarantine surely an essential part of any exit strategy – and opening up a flank to an entire continent would seem to leave a substantial hole. Public will think (rightly) we are potty. Overwhelming support for tougher action at our borders!!”
In August 2020, when Mr Johnson asked ministers and officials for their views on whether face coverings were needed in schools, Mr Cain told him: “Considering Scotland has just confirmed it will [impose them], I find it hard to believe we will hold the line.”
His pivotal role in Government raised eyebrows among some former colleagues who had not seen him as a high-flyer in his previous jobs. Educated at Ormskirk Grammar School in Lancashire and at Staffordshire University, he worked as a reporter for The Gloucester Citizen and later The Sun and Daily Mirror, where his most memorable task was to dress up as a chicken during the 2010 election campaign and goad David Cameron, the Tory leader, for supposedly being afraid of scrutiny.
When he later secured his No10 role, the Mirror carried a picture of him in his chicken suit with the headline “Malcolm Clucker”, a pun on the name of the fictional spin doctor Malcolm Tucker from TV comedy The Thick of It. He framed the story and put it on the wall of his office. Mr Cain switched to PR, and when the Vote Leave campaign began in 2016 he successfully applied for the role of head of broadcast. The 41-year-old was prepared to run through brick walls for “the boss” but left No10, with chief aide Dominic Cummings, in November 2020 after losing an apparent power struggle with Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie, and set up a corporate communications company.