Larry, the Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, has accepted sir Keir Starmer’s resignation as his chief servant and has invited Andy Burnham to submit a detailed proposal on his daily feeding schedule.
The odd scratching post with a microphone was set up once again outside 10 Downing Street. This means one of two things: either things are going exceptionally well, or nothing is going right at all. Larry knew from experience that the latter was far more likely.
On the morning of June 22, 2026, Keir Starmer stood before that scratching post. His voice cracked and his eyes welled up when he mentioned his family. Journalists hurriedly took down his words and social media was already all warmed up.
“…Every decision I made was for this country that I love. That is why I am resigning as leader of the Labour Party.”
Whenever he heard remarks like that, Larry would flatten his ears. After fifteen years of living in this house, he has learned to recognise the patterns. Every tenant of 10 Downing Street eventually stands before that scratching post in their final speech and claims their decisions were made for the country. They took power for the country, they held on for the country, and they step down for the country. The country is the one getting exhausted in the whole process, but nobody ever mentions that part.
Larry was the only Downing Street resident whose approval rating hadn’t plummeted into the gutter. Whoever comes next, the one thing we can all agree on is that the most important task for the successor is to feed Larry on time.
It was July 2024 when Keir Starmer first walked through the door of 10 Downing Street. The Labour Party secured a landslide victory with a 174 seat majority, ousting the Conservatives after 14 years in power. The media wrote about a “new era,” supporters wept, and Starmer was filled with determination.
Larry knows this scene well. Everyone is like that when a new resident moves in. The problem was that it wasn’t a landslide born of genuine enthusiasm, but rather the result of the Conservatives collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Labour won 9.2 million votes, which is fewer than the 12.9 million votes Corbyn won in 2017 when he actually lost the election. It was a victory, sure, but in the cat world, it was the equivalent of a mouse voluntarily walking right into your mouth.
The trouble always starts in the first month. This time, it arrived exceptionally early. It was that very month of Labour taking power when Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced cuts to the winter fuel allowance. The anger of elderly citizens who lost their heating subsidies overlapped with Starmer’s clumsy initial response to the Southport stabbings. In less than 100 days, his approval rating nosedived. Cats have a landing instinct. Starmer didn’t have that. At least not at first.
At this point, Larry is reminded of a single truth: simply providing food is not enough. How you provide it matters.
From then on, the Starmer government’s way of operating took on a unique rhythm. Set a goal, explain the goal, talk about the goal, and then quietly sweep the goal away. In December 2024, they announced a ‘Plan for Change’ consisting of three pillars, five missions, and six measurable milestones, promising to give the public the power to “hold our feet to the fire.” However, the plans for a progress-tracking dashboard were scrapped, and Starmer himself lost interest in the milestones. Larry knows this pattern exactly. When a new resident moves in, they absolutely must “reorganize” something. They lay out new dishes, rearrange the furniture, and inevitably move Larry’s food bowl at least once. Two days later, it goes right back to its original spot.
The policies the public remembers were the winter fuel allowance cuts, welfare cuts, and hardline immigration reforms. Immigration at least had the numbers to back it up. Net migration dropped from 649,000 to 204,000, and the number of Channel crossings was somewhat lower. But Starmer had said he would “stop the small boats.” Stop them, not just reduce them. This difference might seem small, but anyone announcing something from the scratching post in front of 10 Downing Street must be very careful with their vocabulary. The public remembers everything. The NHS saw some indicators improve, but the majority of NHS workers themselves still viewed the situation as poor. The gap between “getting better” and actually “being good” is also quite wide.
The autumn of 2025 was particularly brutal. Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Ambassador to the United States was announced in December 2024, and with the release of the Epstein files in September 2025, Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted American child sex offender was extensively exposed. Starmer fired Mandelson. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner resigned voluntarily that same month over a controversy regarding the underpayment of property taxes. Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney stepped down in February 2026, taking responsibility for Mandelson’s appointment.
Outside, other pressures were mounting. Reform UK, the anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage, was consistently topping national opinion polls, while on the left the Green Party was drawing in more free-spirited Labour voters. In the 2026 local elections, Labour lost around 1500 council seats across England, and its projected vote share fell to 17%, roughly half its 2024 level. Reform took more than 1450 seats. By this point, Labour MPs were no longer asking “Should Starmer go?”, but rather “When should he go?”.
In May, Health Secretary Wes Streeting handed in his resignation. His resignation letter directly criticized Starmer. In June, amid conflicts over defense spending, Defense Secretary John Healey, Minister of State Al Carns, and parliamentary aides resigned one after another.
It was a season of human resources disasters. People leave Downing Street frequently. It’s just that they don’t usually leave in such large numbers all at once.
And then on Thursday, June 18, Andy Burnham returned to Parliament by winning 54.8% of the vote in the Makerfield by-election. Josh Simons had vacated his seat to allow Burnham to run. Starmer initially said that he will not run away. However, during a weekend spent at Chequers, after consulting with cabinet ministers, political advisors, party donors, and trade union leaders, he reached the conclusion that his position was no longer tenable.
On Monday morning, the door of 10 Downing Street opened.
“…That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision.”
Nominations for the Labour leadership will open on July 9 and close on July 16, the final day before the parliamentary summer recess. The new leader is expected to be elected before September 1.
Streeting announced he would back Burnham. The names of others, including Foreign Secretary David Lammy, are also being floated. Burnham himself confirmed he would challenge for the leadership, stating that this transition “must be conducted in a responsible and orderly manner.” By summer at the earliest, Britain will welcome its seventh Prime Minister. In the span of 10 years.
Larry would have watched this scene from somewhere near 10 Downing Street where the journalists were waiting. For him, this is the sixth send-off. Cameron left after losing the Brexit referendum. May left after losing to Parliament. Johnson left after losing to himself. Truss lost to the bond market in just forty-five days. Sunak lost the election. And Starmer – lost his cabinet.
Starmer was not the best Prime Minister. His net approval rating plummeted steeply from a slightly positive figure at the start of his term to an average of –46% as of November 2025. Yet, he wasn’t the worst Prime Minister either. Starmer’s approval ratings were still higher than Boris Johnson’s after the Partygate and Liz Truss’s just before her resignation. He received international praise for rallying European support for Ukraine and mitigating the diplomatic chaos triggered by conflicts with Iran. One worker-friendly legislation, the Employment Rights Act, was actually passed.
He provided Larry’s food on time, tried not to cause a massive scene, and didn’t severely wreck the house. He wasn’t bad enough for Larry to stick his claws out and drive him away, but he wasn’t particularly good enough to hold onto either. And since he is walking out on his own now, he has taken care of this matter himself.
Coincidentally, today marks the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Brexit vote. Since 23 June 2016, British politics has been in a state of near-constant turmoil, and the only real constant at Downing Street over those 10 years has been neither a politician, a political party, nor an ideology. It has been a grey and white tabby cat from Battersea Dogs&Cats Home, whose official title required him to catch mice.
Burnham will come. Or someone else will. The door will open and close again, and the new resident will arrive with a new plan, new milestones, and a new “change.” Larry will watch all of this from a reasonable distance.
The scratching post in front of 10 Downing Street will be cleared away tonight. It will be stored away for the next time. So it can be brought out again at any moment.
Larry will wait. It won’t take long.