Larry the Cat: 15 Years as Britain’s Top Mouse Hunter & Downing Street Icon

In an era of political turbulence, a measure of stability arrives on four paws, with whiskers and a penchant for naps. Larry, the government’s Chief Mouser, celebrates Sunday, February 15th as his 15th anniversary in the role – and, unofficially, as Britain’s first feline, a reassuring presence that has served under six Prime Ministers. Some observers suggest the Prime Ministers have, at times, served at his pleasure.

“Larry’s approval ratings will be very high. And Prime Ministers tend not to reach those figures,” notes Philip Howell, a professor at the University of Cambridge who has studied the history of human-animal relations. “He represents stability and that is a very valuable thing.”

The story of the grey and white tabby’s rise from stray to resident of power at 10 Downing Street, where he officially holds the title of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, is a notable one. Adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home by then-Prime Minister David Cameron in February 2011, Larry’s duties, according to a profile on the UK government website, include “greeting guests to the house, inspecting the security defenses and testing the quality of antique furniture for naps.” He roams freely and has a knack for stealing the spotlight from visiting world leaders, much to the delight of press photographers.

“He’s great at gatecrashing photos,” says Justin Ng, a freelance photographer who has come to know Larry well over the years. “If there’s a foreign leader about to visit, then we know he’ll come out just at the exact moment that greeting is about to happen.”

Larry has encountered numerous world leaders, sometimes requiring them to navigate around or over him. He is generally described as being less friendly towards men, though he reportedly took a liking to former US President Barack Obama, and elicited a smile from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during one of the leader’s visits to London. When US President Donald Trump visited in 2019, Larry famously inserted himself into the official photograph at the entrance and then took a nap under “The Beast,” the President’s armoured car.

Reports on Larry’s rodent-hunting prowess vary, though he has been photographed catching the occasional mouse – and once, a pigeon, which escaped. “He’s more of a lover than a fighter,” Ng points out. “He’s very good at what he does: loafing around and basically showing people he’s very unconcerned.”

Coexistence with Other Pets

Larry has cohabited, sometimes with a degree of tension, with the pets of various Prime Ministers, including Dilyn, Boris Johnson’s Jack Russell terrier, and Nova, Rishi Sunak’s Labrador retriever. He is kept well away from the cats belonging to current Prime Minister Keir Starmer – JoJo and Prince – who reside in the family’s private quarters, while Larry governs the working areas of Downing Street.

He had a volatile relationship with Palmerston, the Foreign Office’s chief diplomatic cat across the street from Number 10. The two were caught scuffling on several occasions before Palmerston retired in 2020. Palmerston passed away this month in Bermuda, where he served as a “feline relations consultant” to the governor.

Meanwhile, Larry remains. Now aged 18 or 19, he has slowed down somewhat, but continues to patrol his territory and sleep on a windowsill above a radiator, just inside the door of Number 10. “A Prime Minister who hates cats, that seems to me a political suicide,” Howell added, commenting on Larry’s continued presence.

Howell adds that Larry’s status as a non-partisan “official pet” distinguishes him from US presidential pets – more frequently dogs – which American leaders have sometimes used to soften their image. “The fact that cats are less manageable is also part of the charm,” he points out. “He’s non-partisan in a political sense, but he tends to take to some people and not others, and he won’t necessarily sit where you want him to sit or pose where you want him to pose.”