Keir Starmer resigned as Prime Minister on the morning of 22 June 2026. His cats -- reportedly Jojo and Prince -- departed with him. They were his personal cats. They are not civil servants.
Larry's position has not changed.
Larry is the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. He has been at 10 Downing Street since February 2011. He served under Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, and Starmer. Six Prime Ministers. On the morning of 22 June 2026, the sixth left through the front door. Jojo and Prince were with him.
Larry was not.
The seventh has not been named. Andy Burnham, the newly elected Member of Parliament for Makerfield and former Mayor of Greater Manchester, is the frontrunner. He is reportedly bringing a rescue dog, Axel. Labour leadership nominations open on 9 July.
This is not without precedent.
In 2019, Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. He brought a dog -- Dilyn, a Jack Russell cross. Dilyn and Larry occupied No. 10 simultaneously from 2019 to 2022. Their cohabitation was documented in some detail. In 2022, Johnson resigned. Dilyn left with him. Larry remained.
Larry remained through Truss, Sunak, and Starmer as well.
He is a civil servant. Prime Ministers do not take him with them. This feature of the arrangement appears not to have been fully appreciated by each successive Prime Minister until it was too late to alter.
The institutional loss elsewhere is more significant.
Palmerston served as Chief Mouser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2016 to 2020. He was present throughout the Brexit negotiations. He was adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. He retired in August 2020 and relocated to the British countryside. He subsequently moved to Bermuda.
He died there on 14 February 2026.
No successor has been appointed. The Foreign Office has operated without a Chief Mouser since his retirement in 2020. His death in Bermuda, on Valentine's Day, has not prompted a review of the vacancy. The diplomatic service has no current feline intelligence capacity at its London premises.
Buckingham Palace also has no cats. King Charles III reportedly cannot bear them. The dislike is described as dating from childhood. The royal household maintains dogs. The tradition of palace cats, where it existed, has not been revived.
The Chief Mouser's position at Downing Street is the last active post in central government. It is held by a civil servant who has given no indication of retirement.
In May 2026, the European Parliament voted to establish mandatory microchip identification for all cats and dogs in the EU. The transition period for privately kept cats is fifteen years. The United Kingdom is not subject to the regulation. Larry is therefore not covered.
The surveillance infrastructure documented in this publication in June covers movement records assembled from parking firms, vehicle registration queries, and smartphone location data. It has been operational since at least 2024. It carries no transition period.
It was not built for cats.
In May 2026, two unregistered cats were found at Minden station. One was a Siberian. One was a British Shorthair. Neither was registered in any national database. Both were identified the same morning by other means.
This publication previously reported on the incident. We do not revisit it here.
The British Shorthair was last observed moving toward the Herzog-von-Braunschweig-Kaserne, four kilometres from the station. Pioneer Battalion 130 -- the only NATO unit operating the M3 rapid river-crossing system -- is stationed there.
The German Bundeswehr brigade commitment to Lithuania was formalised in June 2026. The British Shorthair's current location has not been established.
These are separate matters.
The seventh Prime Minister has not been named. Nominations open on 9 July. Axel has not yet arrived. The FCO position remains vacant.
Larry's position at Downing Street has not changed.
He has not been asked.
E. Halberd Filed from Sussex.