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5 hours ago
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Anneliese Dodds, the international development minister, has quit her post over Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the international aid budget by almost half to pay for a generational increase in defence spending.
The senior Labour MP, who attended cabinet, warned that the UK pulling back from development would bolster Russia, which has already been aggressively increasing its presence worldwide, as well as encouraging China’s attempts to rewrite global rules.
She predicted that the prime minister would find it “impossible” to deliver on his commitment to maintain development spending in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine with the diminished budget, which will fall by about £6bn by 2027.
Dodds said she firmly believed the prime minister was right 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% of GDP by 2027 – and an ambition to hit 3% in the next parliament.
But the former shadow chancellor said she believed Starmer’s 3% ambition “may only be the start” given the tumultuous 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.
Cabinet ministers are among those who voiced concern over plans to cut aid spending by 46%, from 0.56% of gross national income [GNI] to 0.3%, after Donald Trump’s own drastic cuts to the US aid budget. In a cabinet meeting several warned of the risk of unintended consequences.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said earlier this month that the US’s plan to cut aid funding could be a “big strategic mistake” that allows China to step into the gap and extend its global influence. Starmer has been accused of pandering to the US president.
Dodds said she was only told about the decision by Starmer on Monday, but decided to hold off on resigning so as not to overshadow the prime minister’s trip to Washington to make the case to Trump for security guarantees for Ukraine.
Starmer made his surprise announcement in the Commons, telling MPs that Britain will “fight for peace in Europe” with a generational increase in defence spending.
At a Downing Street press conference, he told reporters: “I’ve taken a difficult choice today because I believe in overseas development, and I know the impact of the decision that I’ve had to take today, and I do not take it lightly.
“It is not a decision that I, as a British Labour prime minister, would have wanted to take, but a decision that I must make in order to secure the security and defence of our country.”
The move, just two days before the prime minister was due to meet Trump, raised immediate concerns that he was following the US’s lead and prompted fury from aid groups that say it could cost lives in countries that rely on UK support.
Lord Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army, told the Guardian that the decision to cut foreign aid was a “strategic mistake” that would ultimately add to the burden on Britain’s armed forces, and risked making the UK “weaker not stronger”.
In her letter to the prime minister, Dodds 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 [ODA]. I also expected we would collectively discuss our fiscal rules and approach to taxation, as other nations are doing.
“Even 3% 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.”
Dodds, who was also a minister for women, was sceptical about Starmer’s promise to maintain aid funding for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, as well as for vaccination, climate and for rules-based systems, despite raiding the aid budget.
Officials have said that the portion of the development budget going on asylum seeker accommodation – which stands at almost a third – would eventually be freed up for aid.
“It will be impossible to maintain these priorities 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.”
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 Starmer 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% of GNI.”
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.
