Downing Street has its own mouser in the form of Larry, a rescued stray cat

If politics is a game of cat and mouse, the mice are winning. The Houses of Parliament’s longstanding infestation of rodents is getting worse.

“Wherever I go, I see mice,” Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons deputy speaker, said. “I was walking down the corridor the other day and this mouse was walking down with a little bit of a swagger, and off it went.”

The pest problem has worsened recently, most notably during the Easter recess when most Brexit-weary politicians, staff and journalists moved out, allowing the mice to move in. The rodents now have the run of the place, walking all over carpets, desks and even the feet of unsuspecting victims.

The crumbling, gothic Palace of Westminster makes it a difficult problem to solve