No 10 Lee Cain soap opera matters because of what it reveals about Boris Johnson

This morning the occupants of Downing Street are scrubbing the blood from the walls.

Power struggles are not unusual at the heart of Government but few have been waged with such ferocity or played out so publicly.

Until today, most people will not have heard of Lee Cain or many of the other minor characters in this gore-splattered soap opera.

But the departure of the PM's director of communications is about much more than the exit of a senior adviser.

For a start, it is telling that Boris Johnson has not been able to keep a lid on this internal turf war.

Competent administrations put a premium on internal discipline so bust ups of this kind usually only emerge when the memoirs are written.

The fact the Prime Minister has not been able to contain the backbiting, the leaks and the bloodletting points to a rottenness at the heart of his regime.

Inside Downing Street - Mr Johnson's aides are fighting like rats in a sack (PA)

Lee Cain may not be a household name - but the what happened is revealing (PA)

The turmoil of the last 24 hours will add to the impression that Johnson has all the skills required for winning elections but none of the attributes needed to run a country.

Voters may not care about the characters involved but they will care that a dysfunctional No 10 is embroiled in a bitter civil war as the country is wrestling with Covid, an economic crisis and Brexit.

On the day the UK reached the grim milestone of 50,000 coronavirus deaths, few will be impressed that those at the heart of Downing Street are fighting like rats in a sack.

This unedifying and self-indulgent power struggle is about who has the ear of the Prime Minister.

Access matters.

Only a handful of people are allowed into Johnson's inner circle and these privileged few shape policy, make decisions and decide the direction of the Government.

Cain, a former Vote Leave staffer, has left because he was being frozen out. Other Vote Leave staffers in No 10 could follow.

Many in the Conservative Party resent the way Dominic Cummings and other veterans of the Brexit referendum were allowed into the heart of Downing Street.

Dominic Cummings's influence is potentially under threat (PA)

Johnson is under pressure to decide whether his administration should continue to be guided by the Vote Leave mentality of constant campaigning and aggression or the more consensual style he adopted when Mayor of London.

This is the heart of the battle and it is waging in No 10 while the country is living through the middle of an unprecedented pandemic.