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LONDON — It’s official, British politics has gone to the dogs.
As serious debates swirl on everything from Chinese espionage to illegal migration, Westminster’s lawmakers are taking the opportunity to drop everything for their four-legged friends.
Each summer, dog welfare charities the Kennel Club and the Dog’s Trust host the Westminster Dog of the Year show. It’s become a bizarre but much-loved fixture of the political calendar, where normally buttoned-up MPs take to the Victoria Tower Gardens lawn next to the grand Houses of Parliament and compete to see who has the best furry friend in SW1.
On a sunny Thursday, 16 MPs battled it out to show off their dogs, briefly putting aside the, ahem, political dogfights in the name of canine welfare.
Those duking it out included William Wragg, vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, Tory whip Rebecca Harris, SNP frontbencher Patricia Gibson, and Labour’s Rosie Duffield and Anna McMorrin.
So who has the best dog in Westminster?
POLITICO couldn’t possibly comment. But the judges — Environment Minister Edward Timpson, Dog’s Trust veterinary director Payla Boyden, and Kennel Club CEO Mark Beazley — loved one political pooch above all others.
A bandana-wearing cockapoo called TJ, companion to Conservative MP Mims Davies, is Westminster Dog of the Year, make no bones about it.
In second place came McMorrin and her working cocker spaniel Cadi, keen to bask in both the sun and the glory. Conservative James Daly’s apparently very well-behaved and attention-loving black Labrador Bertie slipped in at third place.
In a poignant moment, organizers also revealed the results of a public vote in the name of the late Conservative MP David Amess, who was murdered while meeting constituents two years ago.
His French Bulldog, Vivienne, was crowned Westminster Dog of the Year in 2021, and this year’s poll — named the Sir David Amess Pawblic Vote — was won by King Charles Spaniel Paco, who belongs to Labour’s Rosie Duffield.
POLITICO’s intrepid correspondent can confirm that Paco was keen for a cuddle and also is very brave — he was only this week diagnosed with a heart murmur after a fainting spell.
So, erm, is there a serious point to all this?
“It’s a fun-filled day out with an important message at its core – helping to promote dog welfare issues and encourage responsible ownership,” Dogs Trust CEO Owen Sharp says. Each MP entering the competition comes armed with a dog-related campaign issue to raise awareness of.
Dogs are in the headlines right now in the U.K. too — for all the wrong reasons. There are growing calls to ban a breed call XL bullies, after one attacked a child in Birmingham last week.
Labour’s Duffield says the Commons environment committee, of which she is a member, will be having an emergency meeting on the topic, but that it is “obvious that the dangerous dogs act … is so outdated” and needs updating. Sentencing, she says, needs to “better reflect” the harm that people are committing by “breeding dogs to hurt people.”
Daly is meanwhile pushing a bill known as Tuk’s Law, which would force vets to check a dog’s microchip before putting it down. The move, advocates argue, would ensure that a dog which is reported as stray or dangerous can be re-united with its owner, or matched with a backup owner, in a bid to curb “unnecessary” euthanasia.
And Conservative MP Anna Firth — owner of cavapoochon Lottie — says she is lobbying for “justice for all the dogs which are mauled to death every year in this country due to other people not controlling” their pets.
For most of those gathered on Thursday, though, Westminster Dog of the Year was a welcome respite from the non-stop-drama of British politics.
“It’s it shines a light on how fantastic is to have a dog and what a contrast it is,” says McMorrin. “From the rough and tumble [of Westminster], to come home and have Cadi is just a complete contrast to everything in there — and she makes life better for everyone.”
