Britain’s International Development Minister has resigned following cuts to the country's overseas aid budget to pay for more defence spending.
Anneliese Dodds, whose department supported countries in the Middle East and Africa, said the cuts would “deeply harm” the UK’s reputation.
Her resignation will come as a blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he attempts to defend his decision – the result of an urgent need to raise defence spending in response to weakening American support for Europe and the continued Russian threat.
Ms Dodds revealed that she delayed her resignation in order not to overshadow the Prime Minister’s summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday.
Mr Starmer announced on Tuesday that the UK's overseas aid budget would reduce from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of GDP in order to pay for a £13.4 billion ($17bn) increase in the armed forces budget. But he told parliament that the finances for critical projects in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine would be protected.
However, Ms Dodds said that it would be “impossible” for Britain to deliver on those commitments with a much smaller budget.
“It will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut; the effect will be far greater than presented,” she wrote in her resignation letter to Mr Starmer. “Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people – deeply harming the UK’s reputation.”
Less than a month ago, The National reported that Ms Dodds admitted children in Yemen had starved when the UK last cut aid in 2021.
Ms Dodds said the aid budget reductions had been “portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts” to USAID, the US Agency for International Development.
She also warned the Prime Minster that the decision would help Russia. “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 wrote.
Ms Dodds did acknowledge that because the “postwar global order has come crashing down” defence spending must increase and “that there are no easy paths to doing so”.
But while she had been prepared for some reduction to the aid budget, she stated that funds for extra defence spending should be raised through taxation rather than by reducing other departmental budgets.
She added that the aid cuts come at a time when China is attempting to “to rewrite global rules” and when “the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of them all”.
In his response to Ms Dodds, Mr Starmer said the decision regarding the aid cut "was a difficult and painful decision and not one I take lightly".
"We will do everything we can to return to a world where that is not the case and to rebuild a capability on development," he wrote.
“However, protecting our national security must always be the first duty of any government and I will always act in the best interests of the British people.”
Mr Starmer pledged to take the defence budget from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent of GDP, by cutting the international development budget from its current level of 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent by 2027 when the military increase is due to take hold.
“We must change our national security posture,” he told parliament. “A generational challenge demands a generational response.”
Ms Dodds becomes the first minister to resign from Mr Starmer's cabinet on a point of principle. Transport Secretary Louise Haigh stepped down in November after it emerged she had admitted a fraud offence a decade ago.
