International development minister resigns over cuts to foreign aid

International development minister Anneliese Dodds has resigned over the Prime Minister’s cuts to the foreign aid budget.

Dodds, a former shadow chancellor, has quit her posts in the foreign office and as women and equalities minister, in the wake of Keir Starmer’s move to reduce overseas aid to fund increased defence spending, which she revealed she was informed about on Monday.

Earlier this week, Starmer announced he would hike military funding from the current 2.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 2.5 per cent by 2027.

The decision, announced in Parliament on Tuesday, will see the foreign aid budget fall from 0.5 per cent of GDP to 0.3 per cent – which prompted outcry from charities and some MPs – amid rising global uncertainty over Ukraine’s future and the European security apparatus.

Writing to Starmer today [Friday], Dodds said she delayed tendering her resignation as it was “imperative that you had a united cabinet behind you as you set off for Washington”. 

She wrote: “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 (ODA) to 0.3 per cent of GNI [gross national income].”

But she also stressed in her letter that the “cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people – deeply harming the UK’s reputation”, while admitting Starmer has “been clear that you are not ideologically opposed to international development”. 

However, she argued: “But the reality is that this decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts to USAID [US Agency for International Development].

The former minister acknowledged that: “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.”

But she said she had expected the government to “collectively discuss our fiscal rules and approach to taxation, as other nations are doing” – before the Prime Minister informed her “the tactical decision was taken for ODA to absorb the entire burden”. 

Dodds also warned that the move would make it “impossible” to continue supporting “Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems”, she argued, “given the depth of the cut”.

And she warned the decision would see a “UK pull-out” from areas including the Western Balkans “at a time when Russia has been aggressively increasing its global presence”, as well as a “reduced voice for the UK in the G7, G20 and in climate negotiations”. 

She added: “All this while China is seeking to rewrite global rules, and when the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of them all.”

The MP for Oxford East said she wished the government “every success” for the future and said she would continue to support Starmer “from the backbenches”.

Responding to Dodds’ letter, Starmer thanked her for her “hard work, deep commitment and friendship”.

In a letter released by No10, he wrote: “Overseas development is vitally important, and I am proud of what we have done.” 

The UK, he said, would still provide “significant humanitarian and development support” and “protect vital programmes” in the “world’s worst conflict zones of Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan”. 

He also insisted the decision was “difficult and painful… and not one I take lightly,” writing: “We will do everything we can to return to a world where that is not the case and to rebuild a capability on development. 

“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.”

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she backed Starmer after Dodds resignation, writing on X: “I disagree with the PM on many things but on reducing the foreign aid budget to fund UK defence? He’s absolutely right.

“He may not be able to convince the ministers in his own Cabinet, but on this subject, I will back him. National interest always comes first.”

But Tory MP and former foreign office minister Andrew Mitchell said Dodds had done the “right thing”.

He said: “Labour’s disgraceful and cynical actions demean the Labour Party’s reputation as they balance the books on the backs of the poorest people in the world.”

While the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for international development Monica Harding wrote on X: “Diplomacy, development and defence are not competing priorities – they are complementary.

“Where we withdraw our aid, it’s Russia and China who will fill the vacuum.”