The House of Commons is branded an ‘unsuitable environment’ for cats because of its out-of-control rat infestation

The Commons has been denied a cat to get rid of an infestation of rats and mice – because there are so many of the rodents.

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home said last night that it had told the Commons it was ‘an unsuitable environment’ for a moggie. 

The House’s rodent problem is so great, poisonous traps have been laid – which can kill a cat, too.

A spokesman for Battersea, on the other side of the Thames, said it had successfully ‘rehomed working cats’ to three Government buildings – including ‘Larry’ being sent to Number 10, ‘Gladstone’ going to the Treasury and ‘Palmerston’ (now retired) being given to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The Commons has been denied a cat to get rid of an infestation of rats and mice – because there are so many of the rodents (stock image)

Rodents scurrying around are a regular sight each evening in parts of the rambling 19th Century Palace of Westminster on the banks of the Thames (stock image)

However, the spokesman said that at the Commons, ‘the site was deemed to be an unsuitable environment for a cat due to the use of poisonous rodent traps. 

The traps are toxic to cats as well as vermin and it would have been a clear health and safety risk for any cat residing in the area’.

Rodents scurrying around are a regular sight each evening in parts of the rambling 19th Century Palace of Westminster on the banks of the Thames.

Just as well, perhaps, that one regular feline visitor to the Parliamentary estate – the Commons Speaker’s cat ‘Attlee’ – sticks mainly to Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s official quarters.