 "Larry the cat walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain. With Keir Starmer set to become the new PM, this will be Larry's sixth PM. File image/Reuters")
The UK general elections are done, the results are out and Keir Starmer and the Labour Party have emerged victorious. As 10 Downing prepares for a new government, there’s a lot of hustle and bustle. However, as staff rushes from pillar to post preparing for the incoming prime minister, there’s a sense of calm among one of the members — Larry the Cat, Britain’s mouser-in-chief.
The cat remains unbothered as he awaits his sixth prime minister in 14 years and his very first Labour PM; the remaining five in the past were all from the Conservative Party.
Let’s take a closer look at the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office and how he became 10 Downing’s most famous resident.
From rags to riches
Born as a stray in 2007, Larry, the tabby cat, was adopted from London’s Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in 2011 by then Prime Minister David Cameron. Initially brought in as a pet for Cameron’s kids, Larry quickly gained the title Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office and was tasked with dealing with rats seen scuttling close to the British leader’s official residence.
His other official duties as mentioned on the UK government website are to “greet guests to the house, inspect security defences and test antique furniture for napping quality. His day-to-day responsibilities also include contemplating a solution to the mouse occupancy of the house. Larry says this is still ‘in tactical planning stage’”.
A report by USA Today states that he is the first cat to hold a rat-catching portfolio since the retirement of Humphrey in 1997.
Interestingly, David Cameron explained during his final Prime Minister’s Questions in 2016 that Larry is a civil servant and therefore, he does not leave Downing Street after a change of premiership.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn his years as chief mouser, he has seen occupancy at 10 Downing change, but he remains permanent. In 2022, he also ‘told’ the public that “I live here permanently, politicians are temporary residents” while Sunak took office.
As a ‘permanent resident’ of 10 Downing, Larry has also met with several world leaders. He showed a liking towards former US president Barack Obama but didn’t feel the same for his successor Donald Trump. When Trump visited UK in 2019, Larry decided to have a lie down under Trump’s £1.2 million armoured Cadillac, meaning that the former US president couldn’t leave after a meeting with Theresa May.
Job performance
After finding success at his job in the beginning, Larry’s performance has been far from stellar. In his first month of arrival at Downing Street, the Daily Telegraph reported that Larry displayed ‘a distinct lack of killer instinct.’
However, he is known to be territorial (who wouldn’t be after staying in one place for so long) and has gotten into scuffles with the Foreign Office’s cat Palmerston. In 2016, Larry had to be taken to a veterinarian following his scuffle with Palmerston. But after Palmerston retired to the countryside, things have been a bit quiet.
In 2022, Larry received praise when he was seen going above and beyond his mouse-catching duties and taking on a fox outside 10 Downing Street. Video of the feline-canine scrap went viral, showing Larry creeping up to the small fox with laser focus. When the fox attempted to hide in a flower bed, Larry pounced and chased it off.
Larry has been accommodating of prime ministers’ pets in the past. When Boris Johnson was elected PM, many wondered how Larry would cope with Johnson’s Jack Russell cross Dilyn. But Larry remained unperturbed.
Akshata Murty, the outgoing First Lady, however, said that Larry and their fox-red Labrador retriever Nova did have some “heated exchanges”. But Larry has always prevailed.
It is left to be seen if Starmer’s cat, Jojo, who the would-be PM says is revered by his kids, comes to 10 Downing and if he does how he gets along with Larry.
Purrfect for the cameras
Larry isn’t shy of cameras either. As Sky News reports, he knows exactly where the TV cameras are and where to position himself so that he regularly appears in the nation’s living rooms in TV bulletins and at major set-piece political events.
He also turns up when the cameras are in Downing Street and once even gobbled up a sandwich belonging to a journalist.
His unofficial X account has also amassed over 8,44,000 followers.
So, as Starmer sets to make his entry into 10 Downing, it will be important to note here what he had said in the past: “The key thing to remember is that I live here permanently, the politicians just lodge with me for a bit until they’re fired. They all work out sooner or later that it’s me that runs the place.”
With inputs from agencies