MPS demand a Parliament cat after £130,000 bill to kill mice

PARLIAMENT has spent £130,000 on stopping an infestation of mice but MPS say all that is needed is a cat.

The sum included hiring a full-time “pest control technician” and laying more than 1,700 bait stations.

The situation became so dire that Penny Mordaunt. the Tory MP for Portsmouth North, took her own pedigree cat, Titania, in to tackle the problem before being rebuked by security for breaking health and safety regulations.

While Whitehall has five mousers – Larry in No10, Palmerston in the Foreign Office, Gladstone in the Treasury, and Evie and Ossie in the Cabinet Office – Parliament has been left without.

Members have complained that mice gnaw through food containers and scamper over their desks. One Conservative MP said: “My biggest worry is that it was only the bongs of Big Ben that was scaring the mice off to any extent at all.

“On cats, if Number 10 and the FCO can have one each, Parliament should have dozens.”

Stella Creasy, the Labour member for Walthamstow, said yesterday: “I for one will be joining cross-party efforts for feline membership of Parliament – not just for the mice, it’s Youtube gold in waiting.”

Wes Streeting, the Ilford North Labour MP, said: “Luckily, my part of the building isn’t infested with mice, but it’s time to stop pussy-footing around.

“Lots of staffers are scaredy cats when it comes to mice. A parliamentary cat might not be a purrfect solution, but after a summer of silly season stories about the Tory leadership, this is definitely the Mogg we’ve been looking for.”

‘My biggest worry is that it was only the bongs of Big Ben that was scaring the mice off to any extent’