Larry (born c. January 2007) is a domestic tabby cat who has served as Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing Street since 2011. He is cared for by Downing Street staff and is not the personal property of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. He has served during the tenures of seven prime ministers, the most of any chief mouser.
Early life Larry was born as a stray cat around January 2007 and later came into the possession of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. In 2011 he was adopted by Downing Street staff, initially intended to be a pet for David Cameron's children. He was described by Downing Street sources as a "good ratter" and as having "a high chase-drive and hunting instinct". In 2012 the Battersea Home said Larry's publicity had resulted in a 15% increase in cat adoptions. Soon after he was taken in at Downing Street, a story circulated in the press purporting that Larry was a lost cat and that the original owner had begun a campaign to retrieve him. It was later found to be a hoax, and that neither the owner nor the campaign existed.
Career Larry currently serves under Andy Burnham. Larry has outlasted six British prime ministers since he started in 2011: David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. The Downing Street website describes Larry's duties as "greeting guests to the house, inspecting security defences and testing antique furniture for napping quality". It says he is "contemplating a solution to the mouse occupancy of the house" and has told Downing Street that such a solution is still in the "tactical planning stage". Unlike his predecessors since 1929, Larry's costs are funded voluntarily by members of staff, at no cost to His Majesty's Government. Fundraising events, organised to pay for his food, are believed to have included a quiz night held in the state rooms. Cameron explained during his final Prime Minister's Questions in 2016 that Larry is a civil servant and not his personal property, and would therefore stay at Downing Street after his successor took office.
Work as chief mouser Within a month of his arrival at Downing Street, anonymous sources described Larry as having "a distinct lack of killer instinct." Later that year, it was revealed that Larry spent more time sleeping than hunting for mice, and shared the company of a female cat, Maisie. At one point in 2011, mice were so endemic in Downing Street that the Prime Minister, David Cameron, resorted to throwing a fork at one during a Cabinet dinner. His lack of killer instinct also earned him the nickname "Lazy Larry" by the tabloid press. He made his first known kill, a mouse, on 22 April 2011. On 28 August 2012 Larry made his first public killing, dropping his prey on the lawn in front of Number 10. In September 2012 Freya was also appointed the role of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. In October 2013 Larry caught four mice in two weeks and one staff member rescued a mouse from his clutches. In July 2015 George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Matt Hancock, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, cornered a mouse in the Chancellor's office, trapping it in a brown paper sandwich bag. The press joked that Osborne might take over the position of Chief Mouser. In April 2026 Larry was observed still performing his duties at age 19 by catching a mouse. In July 2026, during Andy Burnham's first Cabinet meeting as prime minister, Larry was observed delivering a dead mouse in Downing Street. In August 2026, after Burnham established Number 10 North, it was reported that a cardboard cutout of Larry has been installed.
Health In September 2023 The Sun reported that Larry had been in ill health for some time and that Downing Street staff were preparing for his death. A statement from Downing Street denied this and described Larry as "happy and healthy". In August 2024 it was reported that staff at Downing Street had begun preparing plans for how to announce Larry's death to the public. It was reported however that Larry was still healthy.
Public image Ahead of the 2024 general election, an opinion poll from Ipsos showed that Larry had a higher favourability rating (44%) and net favourability rating (40%) than both Sunak (22% and –36%) and Starmer (34% and –7%).
False death report In August 2026, the website Politics UK, founded by a Reform UK councillor, reported that Larry had died. They later retracted the story, stating they had got it from "a reliable source that had been hacked".
Relationships with politicians
David Cameron has said that Larry is a "bit nervous" around men, speculating that, as Larry was a rescue cat, this may be due to negative experiences in his past. Cameron mentioned that Barack Obama is an apparent exception to this fear; he said, "Funnily enough he liked Obama. Obama gave him a stroke and he was all right with Obama." In September 2013 tensions were reportedly growing between Cameron and Larry. It was reported that Cameron objected to cat hair on his suit, and the smell of cat food had to be disguised by air freshener when Downing Street had visitors. The Camerons were said not to like Larry, amid suggestions that Larry was a public relations stunt. Cameron posted on Twitter that he and Larry got on "purr-fectly well". Nevertheless, the online gambling company Ladbrokes made Cameron the odds-on (1/2) favourite to leave Downing Street first, with Larry as the 6/4 outsider. The Daily Telegraph suggested that Cameron had never liked cats but that spin doctors believed Larry could improve his public image.
The former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has described an internal Downing Street security door which requires microphone contact for access as being increasingly "not for security but to keep the cats out from one end of the building to another". When leaving office in 2016, Cameron spoke of his "sadness" that he could not take Larry with him. When Theresa May succeeded him in 2016, there were concerns that Larry was stressed and could be missing the Cameron family.
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