International aid minister Anneliese Dodds has quit over Sir Keir Starmer’s bid to slash the aid budget to pay for higher defence spending.
In her resignation letter, Ms Dodds warned that pulling back from development would bolster Russia and encourage China to rewrite global rules on the international rule-based order.
And she said the Prime Minister would find it “impossible” to deliver on his commitment to maintain development spending in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine with the reduced budget.
Ms Dodds, who attended Cabinet and was also an equalities minister, said she backed Sir Keir’s decision to increase defence spending as the postwar consensus had “come crashing down” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
She said she recognised there were “not easy paths” to doing so, and had been prepared for some cuts to the aid budget to help pay for the plan to increase military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027 – and an ambition to hit three per cent in the next parliament.
But she said she believed the three per cent ambition “may only be the start” given the global picture, and urged the Government to look at other ways of raising the money other than through cutting departmental budgets, including looking again at borrowing rules and taxation.
Blow for Starmer after Trump success
The shock resignation comes just a day after Sir Keir enjoyed one of the most successful days of his premiership following his meeting with Donald Trump in the White House.
Ms Dodds, who was Sir Keir’s first shadow chancellor after he became Labour leader, revealed she had only been told about the cut to her budget on Monday.
She said she decided to delay her resignation so it did not overshadow the Prime Minister’s crucial trip to Washington.
In her letter to the Prime Minister, she wrote: “Undoubtedly the postwar global order has come crashing down. I believe that we must increase spending on defence as a result; and know that there are no easy paths to doing so.
“I stood ready to work with you to deliver that increased spending, knowing some might well have had to come from overseas development assistance. I also expected we would collectively discuss our fiscal rules and approach to taxation, as other nations are doing.
“Even 3 per cent may only be the start, and it will be impossible to raise the substantial resources needed just through tactical cuts to public spending. These are unprecedented times, when strategic decisions for the sake of our country’s security cannot be ducked.”
Cuts ‘remove food and healthcare from desperate people’
She said it would be “impossible” to maintain priorities such as Gaza and Ukraine “given the depth of the cut”.
“The effect will be far greater than presented, even if assumptions made about reducing asylum costs hold true,” she wrote.
And she warned of the potential impacts on Britain’s national security and global influence as hostile nations moved into the breach.
“The cut will also likely lead to a UK pullout from numerous African, Caribbean and western Balkan nations at a time when Russia has been aggressively increasing its global presence,” she said.
“All this while China is seeking to rewrite global rules, and when the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of them all.”
Ms Dodds said she had made up her mind to quit the role on the day she learned about cuts, but had held off until after Sir Keir had returned from Washington.
She wrote: “It was imperative that you had a united Cabinet behind you as you set off for Washington. Your determination to pursue peace through strength for Ukraine is one I share.
“It is for that reason that I am only writing to you now that your meeting with President Trump is over, and four days after you informed me of your decision to cut overseas development assistance to 0.3 per cent of gross national income.”
She concluded: “Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people – deeply harming the UK’s reputation. I know you have been clear that you are not ideologically opposed to international development. But the reality is that this decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts to USAid.”
‘Not a decision taken lightly’
The Prime Minister’s deputy spokesman initially refused to comment on the resignation after the news broke during a briefing with reporters.
He said: “I haven’t seen the letter, so I’m not going to comment on a resignation that I haven’t been across, but you have the Prime Minister’s position on [the cut to the aid budget]. He’s been very clear in the House that this has been an extremely difficult decision.
“It is not a decision I’ve taken lightly, he said. And from our point of view, the biggest mistake we could make would be not to respond to the new global security landscape we face.”
Asked if Ms Dodds had met with the Prime Minister to voice her opposition to the cut prior to her resignation, he said: “I obviously wouldn’t get into any private meetings.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk
