By Annie 
The Minister of International Development Anneliese Dodds resigned on Friday to protest against Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to finance an increase in the expenditure for the defense of £ 6 billion by cutting the budget of the UK aid, in a sign of the political balance of efforts to align more closely with the United States.
“In the end, these cuts will remove food and health care from desperate people – deeply damaging the reputation of the United Kingdom,” Dodds said in a letter to the Prime Minister.
Starmer Tuesday announced an annual of £ 6 billion Increase in military spending By 2027 and declared that it would be funded entirely by cutting the aid budget of £ 15.3 billion in the United Kingdom from 0.5 percent of the gross national income to 0.3 percent.
The abrupt departure of Dodds marks the first resignation by a minister of the cabinet compared to a political principle since Starmer entered office in July last year.
It speaks of a wider discomfort among the bands of Labor Deputies on the decisions taken from the party on the central left on policies ranging from benefits to well -being on a narrow fiscal background.
The reduced aid budget will be £ 9.2 billion, according to the estimates of the Library of the Chamber of Municipalities, but about half of that sum could end up being spent at national level, also for housing asylum seekers.
The general electoral manifesto of Labor last year promised to raise the expenditure for 0.7 percent aid “as soon as the tax circumstances allow it”.
Starmer’s announcement on defense expenditure preceded his visit on Thursday to meet the president of the United States Donald Trump, who invited the NATO partners of Washington to increase the expense for the defense.
The Trump administration has also almost closed the US agency for international development, the main channel for $ 43 billion of US help and development programs per year.
“I know that you have been clear that you are not ideologically contrary to international development”, Dodds He wrote to Starmer. “But the reality is that this decision has already been described as follows in the Slipstream of Cuts of President Trump on Usaid.”
He added that it would be “impossible” to maintain support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, as well as vaccination and climatic support programs, “given the depth of the cuts”.
It is with sadness that I had to offer my resignation as a minister of international development and women and equals.
While I disagree with the decision of the Oda, I continue to support the government and its determination to satisfy the change of our country. pic.twitter.com/44scrx2p8z
– Annelies Dodds (@nannelies Depdads) February 28, 2025
Before winning the power of last year, the Labor Party had denounced cuts to international aid made by the previous conservative government.
Dodds, who is left of the party, was Shadow Chancellor in 2020 and led the criticisms When the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak interrupts the expense for Tory’s aid, violating the manifesto of his party.
He was only told about the Starmer plan to cut the aid budget on Monday, confirmed Dodds in his letter. He added that he resigned until the prime minister returned from Washington.
Starmer said in a letter in response to Dodd: “The decision I made on the impact on Oda was a difficult and painful decision and not one that I take lightly.
“We will do everything possible to return to a world where it is not so and to reconstruct a development capacity,” he wrote. “However, protecting our national security must always be the first duty of any government and I will always act in the best interest of the British people”.
The prime minister also promised to continue to provide support in the worst areas of Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan conflict.
Downing Street later on Friday said that Baroness Jenny Chapman, a close ally of Starmer, had been appointed international development minister.
Almost a third of the budget for the UK aid was spent to support the internal asylum system in 2023.
The analysis of the Think -ank of the Center for Global Development found that, even if the expenditure in the United Kingdom for asylum decreases by 30 %, the actual expenditure of the United Kingdom for international aid would be closer to 0.17 percent of GNI, the lowest in the G7.
On Thursday, in a letter Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, a former deputy secretary general of the United Nations and Minister in Gordon Brown government, told Starmer together with diplomatic and academic characters, to urgently watch alternatives to payment for the increase in defense expenditure, including the introduction of a defense and equity collection and income tax.
“The weakening further of the United Kingdom’s commitment to the risks of international development exacerbate very global instability and security threats of instability and safety that increase the expense for the defense tries to face,” wrote the signatories.
Starr He said this week the increase in defense expenditure would bring the overall military budget of the united kingdom to 2.5 percent of GDP.
He added that in the next parliament, which should have lasted from 2029 to 2034, the United Kingdom would have tried to reach a 3 % level of GDP.
In his letter, Dodds recognized that the global post -war order “collapsed”, requesting higher defense expenses, but said he expected a collective discussion on Labor’s tax rules and the approach to taxation.
A Labor Deputy said he was “gutted” by the resignation of Dodds: “Absolutely gutted. She is brilliant, she worked so hard, she never complained, she was regularly put in totally impossible positions and has always been loyal.”
Dodds was one of the numerous left frontbencher who were in the original Stager’s original shade cabinet, but were set aside while the Labor leader further moved the party to the right.
She was relegated in May 2021 From Shadow Chancellor to the President of the Party and last July the government roles was assigned both of the Minister of Development and the Minister of Women and Equality.