ANNELIESE Dodds has quit her role as international development minister in protest over cuts to foreign aid to boost defence spending.
She said that Keir Starmer’s decision to nearly halve the international aid budget would bolster Russia and encourage China, according to The Guardian.
The senior MP, who attended Cabinet, told the Prime Minister he would find it "impossible" to deliver aid to Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza "given the depth of the cut".
It marks Starmer's first serious Cabinet rebellion since becoming prime minister, though he has previously sacked two ministers over conduct.
The Aberdeen-born Oxford East MP said Starmer (below) was right to increase defence spending though had hoped it might be funded through taxation rather than cuts to her brief.
She said: "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.”
The Guardian reports that Foreign Office officials say that the portion of the international development budget being spent on asylum seeker accommodation – almost a third of the total spend – will eventually be freed up for aid.
However, Dodds said that even if this happened, she was sceptical it would allow Starmer to keep his promises on Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and other projects including measures to combat climate change and boost vaccinations.
She wrote: "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."
Dodds said that slashing the international aid budget, which will be reduced to 0.3% of gross national income (GNI) to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product, put Britain's security at risk.
Analysis by Save the Children has found this will cut aid being spent overseas to its lowest share of gross national income since records began in 1979, with around a third of it being spent in the UK.
Despite Dodds' position, she claimed that she had only been made aware of the foreign aid policy the day before Starmer announced it in the Commons.
She added: "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.
"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 only quit after Starmer's trip to Washington DC this week to meet Donald Trump because she believed it was important for him to have a "united cabinet" behind him.
She added: "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.
In a letter to Dodds, Starmer thanked her for her “hard work, deep commitment and friendship” but defended his decision.
He insisted that the UK would continue to provide “significant humanitarian and development support”, including its commitments in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to “return to a world” where foreign aid was increased but added: “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.”
