Larry the Cat welcomes new prime minister Andy Burnham
Larry the Cat has welcomed his seventh prime minister, Andy Burnham, to No 10 Downing Street. The Makerfield MP’s arrival follows his formal acceptance of King Charles’s invitation to form a government, reports BritPanorama.
At 19 years old, the venerable Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office has become a beloved fixture of British public life. During his 15-year tenure, he has frequently appeared outside the Prime Minister’s central London residence, often providing light relief during tumultuous political moments for the various premiers he has served.
Larry was adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in February 2011, initially intended as a pet for the children of then-prime minister David Cameron and his wife, Samantha. As chief mouser, he is tasked with controlling the rodent population of the building at the heart of the British Government, although his success has been disputed.
Various felines have occupied the post since the 1920s, and there are even earlier historical records of cats on Government residences dating back to the era of Henry VIII. Now more than 90 in relative human years, Larry is believed to have made his first kill on the job at the age of four in April 2011. A favourite among the bank of press cameras, he was witnessed pouncing on a pigeon while the media waited for an update on post-Brexit negotiations with the EU. There have been fractious relationships with other domesticated animals too.
Larry was known to fight with the late Palmerston, a cat brought in to control the mouse population in the Foreign Office buildings neighbouring Downing Street. Former chancellor George Osborne’s cat Freya also fought with Larry when she lived at Downing Street, although the two were also said to have largely coexisted peacefully.
Akshata Murty, the wife of former prime minister and chancellor Rishi Sunak, once told Sky News Larry had “heated exchanges” with her family’s Labrador puppy Nova while they lived in Downing Street, with the cat always having “come out on top.” Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in February last year he was initially having to keep his family’s Siberian kitten Prince away from Larry, in case the Downing Street veteran “doesn’t like him.”
The Starmers had two cats when he took office in 2024, Prince and Jojo. Larry has also been reported to be “not very keen on men,” according to Lord Cameron, who was surprised at how well the pet gelled with then-US president Barack Obama, one of the many international guests Larry has welcomed to Downing Street. The chief mouser sometimes appears in official records of such visits and can be seen lurking on a windowsill in a photograph of Baroness Theresa May with US President Donald Trump while she was prime minister.
With a legacy spanning over a decade, Larry’s role extends beyond mere pest control; he has become a symbol of continuity in a rapidly changing political landscape.
