Andy Burnham has revealed that his pet dog Axel will not be moving into Downing Street with him, explaining that the rescue dog would clash with Larry the Cat, the long-standing feline resident of No 10. Speaking in his first major broadcast interview as Prime Minister, with the BBC, Burnham said he did not think "the nation would thank him" for disrupting Larry's world, so Axel will remain in the north of England instead.

Axel is a bichon frise-poodle cross, sometimes known as a "bichon-poo" or "poochon", who was adopted by Burnham and his wife around a decade ago after spending just 12 days at Dogs Trust Shrewsbury. Burnham jokingly described his dog as having "that angry little man thing going on" due to his poodle heritage. Elsewhere in the interview, he also spoke movingly about being greeted by his mother in Downing Street after becoming Prime Minister, noting his father, who has Alzheimer's, could not attend, and calling the moment "bittersweet".