Larry The Cat Or Nova The Dog? Akshata Murty On Power Struggle At 10 Downing Street

Larry the Cat, the Chief Mouser to the UK Cabinet Office, “doesn't get on” with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's dog, his wife Akshata Murty has said. Speaking to children on Sky News FYI show, Ms Murty said Larry has had some “heated exchanges” with the family's labrador Nova, who has had “mixed emotions” about living at 10 Downing Street. The cat completed 12 years as the Chief Mouser earlier this year. The rescue cat has been the Downing Street cat since 2011 when then PM David Cameron and his wife Samantha got him as a pet for their children.

Now, giving insight into life at Downing Street, Ms Murty talked about the family's dog and its fights with Larry the Cat.

“Nova has mixed emotions about (living here) because she sometimes doesn't get on with Larry the Cat. And they've had some heated exchanges and Larry's come out on top,” she said.

Despite the tensions between the animals, Ms Murty said at the Sky News show that she felt “honoured” to live in the Prime Minister's official residence.

Larry has served as a trusted companion to five UK Prime Ministers: David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and now Mr Sunak, who came into office a year ago.

On microblogging platform X (then Twitter), Larry the Cat had posted an angry reaction after Mr Sunak and his family moved to 10 Downing Street with their fox-red Labrador in November 2022.

“ANOTHER dog?! Bring back Liz Truss…” Larry had said.

The reaction had generated a lot of reaction from users, who gave Larry some advice.

Before Nova, the former Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson had brought his pet Dilyn, a Jack Russell Cross breed dog, into the official London residence in 2019. And, even at that time, the cat was not willing to welcome the new member and wrote, “Confirmation that Downing Street is going to the dogs….” on Twitter.