Larry the Downing Street Cat
36 videos • 2,680 views • by Britclip The nation’s favourite cat, and without question the most important unelected official in Britain, is Larry – Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. Larry lives at 10 Downing Street, though “lives” might be the wrong word, since the house technically belongs to the Prime Minister, and yet Larry has seen off more Prime Ministers than most voters. Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss (barely time to refill the litter tray) – all have come and gone. Larry remains immovable, unflappable, and faintly disdainful, which is exactly what you want in a civil servant. Larry was recruited from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in 2011, and his official job description – genuinely issued by the government – included “testing antique furniture for napping quality” and “greeting guests.” His unofficial job description, of course, is to look magnificently unimpressed while Cabinet ministers scuttle in and out of No. 10, usually in varying states of crisis. As Chief Mouser, Larry’s duties include hunting mice, though his enthusiasm is sporadic at best. From time to time a mouse is triumphantly deposited in the hallway, though there are also persistent rumours that he sometimes befriends them, which is probably more in keeping with modern diplomatic practice anyway. Over the years, Larry has become a bona fide celebrity. He has his own fan clubs, Twitter accounts, and newspaper columns devoted to his daily activities, which mostly consist of sleeping, staring out of windows with regal aloofness, and occasionally blocking the front door just as the world’s press are waiting for a Prime Ministerial announcement. He has also been involved in several very public spats with other political cats, notably Palmerston from the Foreign Office, resulting in unseemly brawls that were, naturally, reported in the national press as if they were summit-level negotiations gone wrong. Through it all, Larry has become a kind of furry embodiment of the Dunkirk spirit: calm, stoic, endlessly unbothered by political turmoil. Governments collapse, economies wobble, leaders resign in disgrace – Larry simply rolls over on the doorstep, yawns, and goes back to sleep. In a nation that prizes eccentricity, understatement, and tea, it seems entirely fitting that the most popular figure in British politics should be a cat.