‘Chancellor, kittens are pretty however please take into account hundreds left in rescues’

Dear Chancellor Rachel Reeves,

I hear you are thinking about getting a cat to join you and your family at No11 Downing Street following next door’s new addition.

The arrival of the Siberian kitten, Prince, was revealed last week by the Prime Minister, who said his ­children had been pushing for a dog to join them at No10.

While I am delighted the Starmers have a new pet to join Jojo, their family cat which moved with them from North London, and Larry, who has been chief mouser to the Cabinet Office since 2011, please can I make a plea for you to go down another route?

While your government is busy dealing with ­overcrowding in prisons and how to tackle hospital waiting lists, we also have another crisis on our hands. Rescue shelters are ­operating at full capacity and having to turn animals away, as numbers of abandonment are at a record high with the combined effects of the pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis creating a perfect storm.

An estimated 150,000 cats are put in shelters each year, with many abandoned in bags and ­cardboard boxes on the side of the road or in woods. The RSPCA says many litters of kittens are also being dumped, including a heartbreaking case of five ­one-week-olds found in a sealed bag cruelly put in a bin in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, earlier this summer.

There are hundreds of other stories like this leaving shelters at breaking point. As a woman who deals in hard facts and figures, I’m sure you will appreciate this is an issue that needs national attention.

Britain is known internationally for being a nation of animal lovers, but we must stop buying pets while ­thousands are left languishing in rescue centres.

Perhaps it is the only time you should follow in the ­footsteps of that buffoon Boris Johnson, who took in Dilyn, the rescue Jack Russell cross, no doubt under ­pressure from his other half, Carrie.

And don’t forget it was the Camerons who adopted Larry from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. I should confess that I am writing this while my own rescue cat, Domino, an Arabian Mau, is purring away while curled on my lap.

Never underestimate how much love and affection you’ll get when you open your home to an abandoned animal.

Regards, Nada