Why Larry the Downing Street cat's position is already under threat

For a decade while politicians have come and gone with the regularity of a cat-flap rattling in a high wind, Larry has remained steadfast at his post of official Downing Street cat. The 16-year-old ‘paw behind the throne’ is now on his sixth PM as the only reliable inhabitant who’s quietly just got on with the job.

Brought from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home by David Cameron and family as Minister for Mice (aka Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, keeping a tradition dating back to Henry VIII), Larry’s portfolio is dealing with the Downing Street rodent problem. Well, the place is a nest of rats, oh sorry that’s the politicians, but there were plenty of the four-legged variety in 2011 when they were seen scurrying across the steps of Number 10 on live TV, so the feline enforcer was in. 

Tirelessly he’s toiled, throughout Covid and the relentless tattoo of corks popping and floorboard thudding as games of Twister at ‘meetings’ collapsed, through the constant door-slamming that accompanies endless Cabinet reshuffles and the beeping of backed-up removal vans.

He’s borne with fortitude the indignity of being hounded by the Johnson’s Jack Russell-cross, Dimwit Dilyn, and their tribe of tail-grabbing toddlers, and being adorned with a Union Jack bow-tie for official photos.

Posing for the cameras

For Larry knows that nothing and no-one lasts forever. He only has to glance at the photographs of former PMs lining the staircase as he ambles aloft to throw up a furball on the prime ministerial bed to know that he will outsee them all.  

Larry has got things how he wants them, so well trained are his civil service flunkeys that he doesn’t need to scritch-scratch at the bomb-proof, high-gloss door – a simple wail and it’s open sesame. He knows he’s the real star, lolling around on the Downing Street pavement for a bored press pack eager to snap at anything that moves. 

But the Starmer family don’t come without baggage, in this case a cat basket ferrying their rescue cat Jo-Jo. So now Larry has company. Time will tell if they can form a power-sharing alliance, but cats are fiercely territorial and Larry as incumbent will be forever top dog, er cat.

A streetfighter, not a diplocat

For all his official title, he’s a streetfighter with previous, having seen off Palmerston, the Foreign Office's resident cat who retired from mousing duties and rubbing the legs of world leaders to spend more time with his family at a new home in the country, no doubt after one to many drubbings dished out by Larry-I’m-no-diplocat.

On the plus side, the Starmers are already cat-trained thanks to JoJo. As Keir, chief Kitekat provider, Starmer revealed: “Jo-Jo is treated with far more respect in our house than I am.” And his point is?

So Larry won’t have to waste time getting them up to speed with his routine (food, nap, repeat). However, once he’s kicked Jo-Jo into shape, he might lose fur over the suggestion of a Downing Street reshuffle in the offing, after Starmer told ITV’s This Morning that his kids are lobbying for a canine companion. Whisper it, another Downing Street dog?

Larry was unavailable for comment.