International Development Minister Resigns Over Foreign Aid Cut
4 min read
International development minister Anneliese Dodds has resigned over the government's decision to cut the foreign aid budget.
Dodds said in her resignation letter on Friday that cuts to the budget announced this week will "remove food and healthcare for desperate people" and deeply harm the UK's reputation.
She said she would continue to support Prime Minister Keir Starmer from the back benches and that she backed his decision to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027.
However, she warned: “You have maintained that you want to continue support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems.
"Yet 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 added that the cuts will likely result in the UK withdrawing "from numerous African, Caribbean and western Balkan nations at a time when Russia has been aggressively increasing its global presence".
“All this while China is seeking to rewrite global rules, and when the climate crisis is the biggest security threat of them all.”
Starmer this week told MPs that the defence spending boost will be paid for in part by cutting spending on international development assistance, moving from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent in 2027.
"That is not an announcement I am happy to make," Starmer told MPs.
The move attracted strong criticism from across the Labour movement.
David Miliband, the former Labour foreign secretary and current head of the International Rescue Committee charity, said the foreign aid budget reduction represented a "blow to Britain's proud reputation as a global humanitarian and development leader".
Upon being elected in July, the Labour government said it was committed to restoring foreign aid spending to 0.7 after the Conservative government led by former prime minister Boris Johnson reduced it to 0.5 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021.
In her letter to Starmer, Dodds suggested that the government will have to consider further tax rises to fund future increases in defence spending.
Starmer said this week that after reaching 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, the government would set out plans for hitting 3 per cent in the next parliament.
“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," she wrote.
“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 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.”
Dodds has been the Labour MP for Oxford East since 2017 and was previously chair of the Labour Party.
Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, the former development minister who supports a bigger foreign aid budget, said of Dodds "kudos to a politician of decency and principle".
"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," he told PoliticsHome.
In a letter to Dodds, the Prime Minister said he was proud of the UK's contribution to development commended the former minister's work in providing support for Ukraine and Gaza. But Starmer made clear the "first duty of any government and I will always act in the best interests of the British people."
Starmer wrote: "The UK will still be providing significant humanitarian and development support, and we will continue to protect vital programmes – including in the world’s worst conflict zones of Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
"The decision I have taken on the impact on ODA [overseas development aid] 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."
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