No wonder Downing Street’s in chaos – you can’t even get a decent phone signal, say ex-No 10 staffers

‘Chief mouser’ Larry the cat sits outside 10 Downing Street in Westminster, London (Stefan Rousseau/PA) - (PA Archive)

Creaky, idiosyncratic, mice in the basement and with “doors that lead nowhere” – Number 10 Downing Street may be one of the most famous addresses in the world, but for many of its staff, conditions in the warren of poky rooms behind the famous door represent the perfect metaphor for the running of the state.

While other countries’ executive branches of government are usually run from considerably grander buildings – for example the US’s White House, Germany’s enormous Federal Chancellery or Italy’s Palazzo Chigi – in Britain, the prime minister is expected to live, work and host official state meetings in a rather tired Georgian townhouse.